are also not explicitly told what happens to the two men, but it certainly seems likely that they are killed just after the story ends.

Ulrich and Georg hate each other personally, and they hate each other because their families have been in conflict for generations. The two families have a dispute about who owns the stretch of forest in which the story takes place. The author explicitly tells us that Ulrich has come out because he thinks Georg will be (as he sees it) trespassing and poaching on his land that evening. As the story says, Ulrich and his foresters had come out

not in quest of four-footed quarry, but to keep a look-out for the prowling thieves whom he suspected of being afoot from across the land boundary.

In other words, Ulrich was out on this night because he hated Georg and wanted to catch Georg on the disputed land. When he caught Georg, he hoped to kill him. We are not told why Georg is out, but we can assume it is for a similar reason.

As for what happens to the men, we do not know for sure. We know that they are trapped under a huge beech tree that blows down in the windstorm. We know that they agree to end their feud. We know that, at the end of the story, Ulrich believes that he sees nine or ten wolves coming towards them. From this, we can infer that the two men die, killed by the wolves.

At the beginning of the story, Ulrich von Gradwitz is patrolling the narrow strip of precipitous woodland in search of his enemy, Georg Znaeym. The Gradwitz and Znaeym families have been involved in a longstanding feud for three generations over a disputed territory located on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians. Although the Gradwitz family claims ownership of the territory, the Znaeym family dismisses the Court's decision and continually poaches on the unfavorable land. On the stormy night, Ulrich searches for his enemy Georg, who is currently poaching on the disputed territory. When the two enemies come face to face in the forest, Nature intervenes as a strong wind sends a massive beech tree crashing down onto the men, leaving them incapacitated and helpless. While Ulrich and Georg are trapped underneath the tree, they put aside their differences and end their longstanding feud. Tragically, a pack of wolves arrives on the scene, and it is implied that they will die before anyone learns of their peace treaty.

Georg and Ulrich are fighting over a piece of land. Their ongoing feud goes back three generations. In order to settle the matter, Ulrich's grandfather took Georg's ancestors to court. The lawsuit was settled and the courts decided that Ulrich's grandfather owned the land that Georg's ancestors were illegally poaching on. However, Georg's ancestors did not abide by the court's ruling. As a result, each successive generation continued to fight over the narrow piece of land in question. 

The narrator notes that this piece of land is not that valuable in terms of game and hunting. This suggests that the ongoing feud has persisted because of stubborn family traditions. In other words, although the men are fighting over a piece of land, their feud is really about their refusal to be sensible and end the pointless fight: 

The feud might, perhaps, have died down or been compromised if the personal ill will of the two men had not stood in the way . . . 

Put in a dire situation, together, Georg and Ulrich finally agree to consider a friendship. It takes this kind of dramatic situation to break them out of this tradition of the feud.