Before the feud began, there was a battle fought by Schott and Christoph von Giech, a fellow knight and Burgrave of Rothenberg, against retainers of Nuremberg.
Nuremberg claimed that Hans Herzog, a retainer of the city, was stopped by Christoph von Giech and a group of his men.
Upon finding out that Herzog was working for the city, Giech and his men cried,"it is the right one, stab him to death!
Nuremberg's account presented Giech and Schott as the instigators of the feud in hopes that the nobles and princes of Germany would aid the city.
Near Eschenau, they were attacked by Nuremberg Hetzrüden (meaning a group of staghounds) who were yelling, "stab them to death!
Both sides attempted to charge the other with starting the feud in order to gather more sympathy from the princes and nobles who had power in the Holy Roman Empire.
Each story would rally different parts of the Holy Roman Empire to the factions' standards, causing the significance of the feud to rise.
[6] Giech claimed that "as noblemen this answer seemed to us so arrogant and haughty, that for several reasons it would have been humiliating and disadvantageous for us [to get involved with such a] piece of impudence, to appear before them at their pleasure and to take an oath".
This forced both sides to look for outside help, such as the emperor, nobles, and knights of the Holy Roman Empire, in order to bring the feud to an end.
[9] After the brutal mutilation of Derrer and the refusal to come to terms, both Nuremberg and Schott and Giech went searching for outside forces to settle the feud.
[12] With the money and adventure that came from these raids, Schott and Giech gathered a large number of followers, who roamed around the country near the city to block any trade from entering.
In an attempt to balance the scales, Nuremberg tried to bring the case up to other parties and charge the knights with "conspiracy and rebellion".
[15] Emperor Maximilian saw these knights as a rebellion against his own authority and used the statutes of the General Peace of 1495 to prevent any from lending a hand in the feud.
While Nuremberg suffered severe damages, Giech and Schott had massed friends and wealth from the successful raids on the city.
Poems and songs would be written by the citizens demanding that the wild nobleman be roasted and treated as a beast.