Following measures by the authorities, he resigned as operations manager in 1939 and became a consulting chemist at Thüringische Zellwolle AG and the rayon-rayon ring.

His Jewish wife was arrested on May 24, 1944, while on a business trip by Correns and died a day later in the Gestapo prison on Petersberg in Erfurt.

[2] After the end of the war, Correns became director of the Rosenthal pulp and paper factory in Blankenstein in 1946.

In 1951 Correns became director of the Institute for Fiber Research of the German Academy of Sciences in Teltow.

Correns headed the institute until 1962, and was succeeded by Hermann Klare, who would later be president of the academy for many years.

In the same year, he became a member of the central board of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship and the Presidential Council of the Kulturbund.