In 1397 he became burgrave of Nuremberg, and after his father's death in 1398 he shared Ansbach, Bayreuth, and the smaller possessions of the family, with his only brother John, but became sole ruler after his brother's death in 1420.
In 1427 he sold his rights as burgrave to the town of Nuremberg, and he was a prominent member of the band of electors who sought to impose reforms upon Sigismund.
Conrad became burgrave of Nuremberg, and, receiving the lands which had come into the family through his mother, founded the Franconian branch of the family, which became the more important of the two; while Frederick, receiving the county of Zollern and the older possessions of the family, was the ancestor of the Swabian branch.
The Franconian branch of the Hohenzollerns was represented in 1227 by Conrad, burgrave of Nuremberg, whom the emperor Frederick II.
This burgrave fought for King Albert I.