After the Wehrmacht was defeated and the Third Reich fell as the Second World War drew to an end in 1945, Rinzenberg had to share the burden of the war's consequences. A whole army of French forestry workers – for Rinzenberg was in the French zone of occupation – descended on the "Schwarzwälder Hochwald" and built a sawmill, and whole forest districts were then clearcut. This went on for years. According to precise plans, usable, high-quality stands of trees were felled, sawn and shipped to France for reconstruction efforts. The formerly gentle contours of the "Schwarzwälder Hochwald" became cleft-filled and jagged against the sky in the background.