In 1910 one of the older winners gets the Nobel Prize, the German lyric poet and writer Paul Heyse, aged 80. The Belgian Symbolist Maurice Maeterlick is the next to be honoured in 1911 because of his multifaceted fantasy which made his works resemble fairy tales and thus touches difficult issues, such as death and the meaning of life. The German dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann is awarded in 1912, and later, during the First World War he becomes famous for its grim history - allegorical works.