In addition to violins, the Roth workshop also manufactured other string instruments (among them, famously, a 1927 double bass owned and played by American jazz bassist Charles Mingus). The Roth company continued successfully in Markneukirchen until the beginning of the Third Reich. From that time onwards, the political climate prohibited the sale of fine instruments to countries unfriendly towards Nazi Germany, and the labour force had to be reduced as a consequence. Nevertheless, some instruments, though of lesser quality, continued to be produced after 1933 and throughout the war years, in difficult circumstances and without the collaboration of Roth's son Albert, who was drafted into the army from the very beginning of the war. During these trying years, Ernst Heinrich Roth was left to continue the business alone except for the help of a couple of elderly colleagues.