Karl Hagemeister Teich in der Mark mit Seerosen und Schilfhalmen

Back in Werder, Hagemeister increasingly gave up his oil paints and began to work with oil pastel chunks. Although he never formally became an art teacher at any academy, he never rejected anyone who sought out his artistic advice. He later became one of the founding members of the Berlin Secession. In 1912, he gave private art lessons to seventeen-year-old Prince Friedrich Leopold, at the Prince's request. He exhibited extensively and, in 1913, was awarded the Bavarian "Order of Merit for Sciences and Arts". The following year, he was named a "Royal Prussian Professor" (a largely ceremonial title that did not involve any teaching). Two years later, he became ill, possibly from lead poisoning from the paints he used, and gave up painting. Most of what he had earned disappeared in the hyper-inflation following World War I. In 1923, he was named a member of the Academy of Arts. He never fully recovered from his illness and died while living with his brother at the family farmhouse.