Mark Braet
07 July 1925 - 6 February 2003
committed poet, translator, essayist, peace activist
07 July 1925 - 6 February 2003
committed poet, translator, essayist, peace activist
Mark Braet's personality is characterized by exceptional human values, an open positive attitude, and a great commitment to worldly problems, in which his life is dominated by literature and cross-border political and socio-cultural engagement. He is also a Freemason. Mark Braet is traumatized by the loss of his mother at the age of 12, and by the painful confrontation with the Second World War that made him a communist resistance fighter. He remained faithful to communist values for life, but at the same time was radically opposed to any form of rigidity.
He is also a publisher and co-founder of several cultural organizations and magazines, and is actively involved in numerous national and international cultural events. He is a frequent lecturer on Federico García Lorca and the Spanish Civil War, Pablo Neruda, Bertolt Brecht, etc. He regularly gives introductions to exhibitions and publications.
He has travelled through some 40 countries, including the former Soviet Socialist Republics and his second home: Spain.
His poetic oeuvre, consisting of 16 volumes, is characterized by a very personal style of writing, in which the importance of the outer form is often omitted in favour of emotional expression, imagination and content that testifies to authentic reality. Mark expresses transcendent deep human sensitivity, committed resistance to any form of injustice, and a universal vision of the past, present, and future.
Publications are published in various magazines. A selection of his poems have been translated in Moscow, Leningrad and (East) Berlin. His poems appeared in translation in magazines in France, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, etc.
He received several literary prizes.
In 1967 he published an essay on Spain.
Fascinated by the poetry of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature), he translated excerpts from his famous Canto General and dedicated an extensive essay to him in 1974. Shortly before his death he dedicates a grand commemoration to this poet.
In addition to Spanish, he made translations from German (Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich Heine) and French.
"Thus he thought and considered, reading and searching, learning by trial and error, and came to realize, after a long and exhaustive exchange of views with a representative of the environmental movement he had come to know during his stay in Jerusalem; that Christians and Marxists had made exactly the same error of thought when they had placed man at the center of all priorities. Both tendencies, seemingly opposing each other, but with so many similarities and common, fundamental views, had apparently not realized that it was not man who was the primary factor, but nature, into which man, through a long phase of development, had entered, and which it was precisely man who had the responsibility to ensure that, in his own interest, the original environment remained in balance".
(Mark Braet. Out: "The Sweet Smell of Sulphur", written under the pseudonym 'Robrecht van Vlaenderen', 1990)
1925:
On July 7 at 14:00 hrs Mark Braet was born in Nieuwpoort under the name Marcel Maurice Braet. Father Leon-Jozef Braet is a contractor, free-thinking liberal politician and Esperantist. Mother Bertha Loobuyck comes from a very Catholic farming family.
1933:
Mark experiences a near-drowning death.
1937:
Mark's mother dies. Mark is only 12 years old. He will be scarred by this for the rest of his life.
1939:
First poem.
1940:
On May 27th, the parental home is completely bombed to the ground. Miraculously, everyone in the family remains unharmed. Until the end of June 1940 Mark goes to school in the R.M.S. in Nieuwpoort. After that he goes to the R.M.S. in Bruges (1940-1942). His creativity in the field of writing is stimulated there by his teacher and well-known writer and critic Jan Schepens.
From September 1940 until the course of 1943 he attends classes at the Academy of Architecture and Technical Drawing.
In the summer of 1940 he joins the athletics club "cercle" in Bruges.
1942:
In May the four years older brother of Mark is arrested. This becomes the second traumatic event in Mark's life. It is also the reason for Mark Braet to join the resistance, the R.V.J. (Revolutionary youth movement). He also becomes a member of the Communist Party of Belgium (K.P.B.). Indeed, the Communist contribution to the resistance is very high in World War II.
From September 1942 to March 1944, he attends classes at the Royal Atheneum Bruges. There he has the assignment to found a new resistance group.
1943:
After the second wave of arrests in Bruges (autumn 1943) Mark takes an active part in the armed resistance at the O.F. (Independence Front) and the Belgian Partisan Army (P.A.).
1944:
After the liberation of Bruges on September 12th, Mark temporarily joins his father's contracting company, where the most important activities (repairing bridges or building new ones) take place in Bruges and the surrounding area.
1945:
Mark Braet becomes a member of the Belgo-Soviet Friendship Association.
He publishes poems in various magazines.
1948:
On June 16 he gets the recognition as an armed resistance fighter.
On December 24, 1948, he becomes a member of the editorial board of the Monthly Journal of Art and Culture "Voorpost", in which he regularly publishes poems. However, the magazine had a short life.
1949:
On December 23, 1949 Mark marries Chris Delrue from St.Joris a/Ijzer. 17 years later the legal divorce will take place.
1951:
He becomes a commercial traveller for the bookshop "De Hele Wereld (Du monde entier)" in Brussels.
He wins the poetry prize of the "World Festival of Youth and Students" in Berlin, with the poem "Partisan song".
Mark Braet is co-founder of the "Vlaamse Volkshogescholen voor Kunst en Wetenschap" (Flemish People's Colleges for Art and Science) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Massart, Head of Scientific Research, and Prof. Dr. Vandendriessche. It had departments in Antwerp, Bruges, De Pinte, Ghent, Mechelen, Ostend, etc. The official foundation of the association will take place on 1 August 1955.
On 14 July he receives the "Medal of Remembrance of the 1940-1945 War with two crossed sabres" as well as the "Medal of Resistance".
He fights for the prohibition of chemical weapons.
1952:
He publishes the poem "Vrede (Peace)"
1953:
In March Mark endorses his participation in the tribute committee in honour of Charles De Coster and his oeuvre, together with Bert Brauns, Frans Buyens, Johan Daisne, Willem Elsschot, Alois Gerlo, Raymond Herreman, Achilles Mussche, David Scheinert and others.
Mark Braet wins the poetry prize "World Festival for Demokratic Youth" in Bucharest.
1954:
On 16 March 1954 he enters the decoration sector of the Innovation, in Kuiperstraat, Bruges. He continues to work there until 1958.
On 3 and 4 April : participation in the meeting with Eastern and Western European literary experts in Knokke with the participation of a.o. Elsa Triolet, J.P. Sartre and Vercors (France); Anna Seghers and Bertolt Brecht (D.D.R. ); Carlo Levi (Italy); Constantin Fedin (U.S.S.R.); J. Iwaskievicz (People's Republic of Poland); Mrs Kaminova and Mr Karaslavov (Bulgaria) and the Belgian authors Norge, Robert Vivier, Frans Hellens, Alois Gerlo and others.
In July, Mark subscribes to the call for the "10th Anniversary of Liberation".
1957:
In August he participates in the "VI World Festival of Youth and Students" in Moscow. He meets among others the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis.
He organizes a signature campaign among Flemish literary experts and artists against the use of atomic weapons.
1958:
Mark Braet founds "Ars et Cultura" with the intention of organizing a number of activities on his own: import and sale of phonograph records from the GDR, organizing concerts, literary translations. These activities continued until December 1962.
On 15 April he becomes co-founder of the Association Belgium-German Democratic Republic (D.D.R.), together with a.o. Prof. Dr. Willem Pee.
1959:
Together with Georges Van Acker, Mark founds the literary magazine "Kruispunt".
1963:
At the beginning of October he is awarded the poetry prize of Wemmel for the best poem that appeared in a magazine in the past year.
From 1963 to 1973 he is a member of the Central Committee of the KPB, taking on the position of Political Secretary of the KPB, Federation West Flanders, from 1963 to 1970.
1964:
A meeting takes place in Merelbeke in 1964 for the merger of the periodicals Kruispunt and Sumier.
1966:
Mark Braet is co-founder of the "Vlaams Marxistisch Tijdschrift".
1967:
Poetry Prize of the City of Tielt 1967: He is placed second with his entry "Met glittererend Haar".
Together with the poet Jan van der Hoeven he buys a house in the village Masarbonés in Catalunya.
1969:
Mark Braet is first laureate for the literary prize of the city of Tielt with the entries "again", "till tomorrow" and "in their boots of hunger".
In December, Mark Braet meets with Frans Masereel in Avignon, in view of the creation cultural Foundation 'Masereelfonds'.
1970:
Mark Braet is National Secretary General of the Belgium-URSS Association. He takes care of the cultural exchanges between Flanders and the 15 Soviet republics.
1971:
He takes the initiative to set up the Socio-Cultural Association 'Masereelfonds'. The Masereelfonds is officially created after receiving the letter of approval from Frans Masereel.
On 23 February he was appointed "Knight of the Order of Leopold II".
1973:
Mark Braet organizes a publishing house within the framework of the Masereelfonds.
On 27 October he is awarded the distinction "Ehrennadel für Ver verdienste um die Freundschaft der Völker" by the "Liga für Völkerfreundschaft der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik" (League for the Fellowship of the German Democratic Republic) (Berlin).
1976:
10 January: Mark Braet is inaugurated in the Masonic Lodge La Flandre in Bruges.
Mark is on the list of the Communist Party of Belgium (KPB) for the municipal elections of 10 October.
1977:
He is on the election list of the K.P.B. (Communist Party of Belgium) as the first candidate for the House of Representatives.
1978:
Mark Braet is winner of the poetry prize of the magazine "Nieuwe Stemmen". see letter.
Together with Filip Delmotte, he sets up the Bruges initiative group against nuclear weapons.
He is again a candidate in the elections
1981:
He is co-founder of the freemasonry lodge Tanchelijn in Bruges.
1982:
Mark Braet joins the protection committee on the occasion of the international conference in Cologne on 30-31 October for the respect of Human Rights in Turkey with a.o. Albert de Smaele (former Minister), T. Dhanis (National Chaplain of the M.O.C.), Pierre Galand (National President of OXFAM), and several members of the European Parliament.
1985:
Mark Braet, together with A.-M. Braet and Bart Vonck set up the publishing house "Pablo-Neruda Fonds".
1986:
In January, Mark Braet retires from the Belgium-USSR Association.
He contributes to the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War.
1988:
On October 21, 1988, the 3rd Sheep Award is presented to Mark Braet in the Harelbeke Meeting Centre. The Order of the Black Sheep was founded in Beveren (Roeselare) on March 6, 1982. It is a confraternity of men and women working for an open, tolerant and pluralistic Flanders. The Order of the Black Sheep is based on modern humanism that encourages reflection and creative reflection. It appeals to human capacities that it experiences as positive, such as reasonableness, responsibility and critical sense.
1997:
19 September: Marriage to Nèle Ghyssaert in the town hall of Damme.
2001:
Mark Braet founds the non-profit association "2004 Pablo Neruda 100" in function of an international commemoration with several activities around the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in 2004.
2003:
Mark Braet dies on February 6 at the age of 77 from the effects of a stroke.