In 1941, finances compelled the artist to take a position that Georg Muche had arranged for him in Krefeld.

Peiffer Watenphul returned to Germany via Perugia, Florence, and Cortina d’Ampezzo. On April 1, 1941, he became the head of the drawing and painting class at the Höhere Fachschule für textile Flächenkunst (Upper Professional School for Two-Dimensional Textile Art) in Krefeld. Here, he met up with Georg Muche, Heinz Trökes, and Gerhard Kadow, and on many occasions, visited Oskar Schlemmer in Wuppertal. He spent most weekends with his mother in Essen. The spiritual tensions and the nights spent in air-raid shelters made it impossible for Peiffer Watenphul to paint and, as a result, only a few watercolors date to this time in Krefeld.

Josephine Eskens, his neighbor in Krefeld, become a motherly friend to him. They cooked war meals together by day and huddled together in the air-raid shelters at night. Peiffer Watenphul left Krefeld after his studio and many of his paintings were destroyed in a June 1943 bombing raid. He went to Vienna and then to Salzburg.