In March 1942 it was sent to the Eastern Front southeast of Leningrad, to take part in the operations against the Soviet Volkhov Front. For his actions, Ringel was promoted to Lieutenant General and in October 1943 received the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross. Ringel's division was transferred to Italy in December 1943 to man the Winter Line near the town of Cassino. Four months later, he was appointed commander of the LXIX Army Corps in Croatia. In June, Ringel was promoted to the General of the mountain troops and put in charge of the Military District Salzburg ("Wehrkreis XVIII (Salzburg)") from which the Army Corps Ringel was formed. He held this appointment until the end of the war. He died in Bayerisch Gmain in 1967. After Crete fell, Ringel stole several Minoan, Classical and Hellenistic artifacts from Villa Ariadne in Knossos and offered them to the University of Graz in Austria. Twenty six of these objects were repatriated to Greece in 2017.