In 1512 and 1513, he was a guest at the court of King Henry VIII in England, where he may have been exposed to the reformist ideas of John Wycliffe and the Lollards.

In 1519, Geyer served under Casimir Margrave of Brandeburg-Kulmbach in the army of the Swabian League against Ulrich Duke of Württemberg and Götz von Berlichingen in Möckmühl.

Later that year Brandeburg-Kulmbach sent Geyer to his brother Albrecht Duke of Brandenburg-Prussia, then Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, to support him in the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521).

By checking Imperial and Protestant knights on the battlefield, the Black Company allowed preacher Thomas Müntzer and his infantry to score a string of victories in Thuringia.

In the night from 9 to 10 June 1525 he was contacted in Würzburg by two servants of his brother-in-law Wilhelm von Grumbach, who had stated their intention of helping him rekindle the Peasants' War.

In this work, Engels asserts that the war was primarily a class struggle over control of farms and mines, which subverted the Biblical language and metaphors commonly understood by peasants.

The song has been popularised as a union-song,[2] and is noted for its inclusion in the official songbooks of both the Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic.