Historical Heidelberg figures: Eugene Marais

Eugene Nielen Marais was a well-known poet and author in South Africa.

Marais was born on January 9, 1871, in Pretoria.

He was the 13th child of his parents, Jan Nielen and Catharina Marais. Marais’ father worked as a government secretary. In 1867, they discharged him from his place of work due to gross irregularities.

Marais matriculated at 16.

In 1894, Marais married Aletta Lettie Beyers. They had a son, Eugène Charles Gerard. After the birth of their son, Lettie developed a fever and died.

Marais began his career as a legal clerk in Pretoria. As a 19-year-old, he became a journalist and later the editor of Land en Volk, a pro-Afrikaner newspaper.

At 20, Marais became co-owner of the paper with Jimmy Roos, and later the sole owner.

After his parents died, Marais moved to England to start a new life. Marais was studying to become a lawyer.
The Second Anglo-Boer War started while Marais lived in London, and due to him being a South African, he was forced to leave.

Marais continued in his quest to help the Afrikaners by smuggling guns and medical supplies to the Afrikaner troops.

At the time, Marais refused to write any of his articles in English due to his siding with the Afrikaners.

Marais was back in South Africa in 1902, working as a journalist and lawyer. In the same year, Marais graduated in law and became an attorney.

According to reports, his poem Winternag in 1905 is one of the first important Afrikaner poems.
Marais was known to be depressed for most of his life.

In 1907, Marais moved to the Waterberg mountains, which resulted in him withdrawing from normal society. He became addicted to morphine.

While in the Waterberg mountains, Marais started studying baboons and termites.

In 1923, Marais settled in Heidelberg as a partner of the law firm Lawrence, Leppan and Marais.

He befriended Dr AG Visser, who motivated him to publish his poetry. Marais and Visser became good friends and Visser tried to cure Marais of his addiction.

In 1925, Marais and Visser had their poems printed in a separate poetry collection.

Ironically both poetry collections had the same name, Gedigte.

In 1925, Marais published a study he did on termites.

A Nobel prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck allegedly stole Marais’ work and presented it as his own.

Marais committed suicide in 1936 on the farm of Gustav Preller.

Eight of his books were printed after his death.

They named a street in Heidelberg after Marais. Ref: https://www.litnet.co.za/ Wikipedia and https://prabook.com/