He was the elder son of Frederick IV of Nuremberg and Margarete of Görz.

He attained his name "the Acquirer" (German: der Erwerber) by the increase of the Frankish house possession of the Hohenzollern.

In the time of his government, came the outbreak of the plague, which claimed numerous victims in Nuremberg.

Because the Jewish population was held responsible for the epidemic, numerous Nuremberg Jews were murdered, without the burgrave intervening against it.

He married countess Elisabeth of Henneberg, daughter of Berthold VII, Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen, before 3 March 1333.