In 1911 Reger was appointed "Hofkapellmeister" (music director) at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen, retaining his master class at the Leipzig conservatory. In 1913 he composed four tone poems on paintings by Arnold Böcklin ("Vier Tondichtungen nach A. Böcklin"), including "Die Toteninsel" ('Isle of the Dead'), as his Op. 128. He gave up the court position in 1914 for health reasons. In response to World War I, he thought in 1914 already to compose a choral work to commemorate the fallen of the war. He began to set the Latin Requiem but abandoned the work as a fragment. In 1915 he moved to Jena, still teaching in Leipzig. He composed in Jena the "Hebbel Requiem" for soloist, choir and orchestra. Reger died in Leipzig on 11 May 1916.