On Monday October 15, 1917, one of the most famous spies of the First World War was executed at the firing range in the Bois de Vincennes. Courtesan, belly dancer and Belle Epoque muse, Mata Hari was accused of spying on France on behalf of Germany, and was shot by the French authorities after an expeditious trial that revealed little truth. In reality, the former Dutch stripper was nothing like the great spy whose assumed name is still the subject of fantasies more thana century after her death.
Real name Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, Mata Hari was born on August 7, 1876 in Leeuwarden, in the Dutch province of Friesland. The daughter of a wealthy, attentive hatter, she attended a renowned school where she learned the arts, good manners and foreign languages. But ever since her adolescence, young Margareth has dreamed of glory, recognition and, above all, of discovering the Parisian life she fantasizes so much about.
So, after her father's bankruptcy and her mother's death, when she was sent to a teacher training college in Leiden, the 17-year-old answered a classified ad in a local newspaper for a Scottish-born officer serving in theDutch colonial army, Captain Campbell MacLeod. The couple married in 1895 and lived in the Dutch East Indies, in Java and Sumatra from 1897 to 1902.
After thefailure of her marriage, which produced a son and a daughter, Margareth returned to Europe in 1903 and decided to try her luck in Paris, where she modelled for painters for a time. Adopting the pseudonym of Lady MacLeod, she managed to pass herself off as an aristocratic woman thanks to an elegant toilette made with her last pennies.
Her education came in very handy: she spoke English, German, French, Spanish and Javanese; she was able to hold conversations in the most social circles, and her distinctive physique, with its mysterious exotic features, matte complexion, large black eyes, curly hair and slender gait, appealed to the men who fell under her spell.
Determined to make a name for herself, Margareth proposed an equestrian act to Ernest Molier, founder of the Molier Circus in 1880, who recommended a nude act. The Dutchwoman accepted, and mounted her horse in the light garb of a Hindu dancer: Mata Hari had just been born. Her artistic career got off to a grand start on the stage of the Molier circus, which brought together, on stage and in the stands, the great names of thearistocracy and the artistic and social life of the time.
"I was born in South India, on the Malabar coast, in a holy city called Jaffuapatam, into a family of the sacred Brahmin caste. My father, Suprachetty, was called, because of his charitable and pious spirit, Assivardam, which means God's Blessing. My mother, first bayadère of the Randa Swany temple, died at the age of fourteen, the day I was born. The priests, after cremating her, adopted me and christened me Mata-Hari, which means Pupil of the Dawn", she recounts of her origins.
During her years in the Dutch East Indies, Mata Hari was introduced to local customs, and in particular to native dances. On March 13, 1905, Emile Guimet invited her to perform in the museum he had founded, the Musée Guimet. The success of his interpretation of the goddess Shiva was reflected in the newspapers the following day.
In a 1905 article in Le Courrier français, a journalist described the young dancer's act as follows: "She undulates beneath veils that both conceal and reveal her. And it's like nothing we've ever seen. Breasts heave languorously, eyes drown. Hands reach out and fall back, as if clammy with sun and ardor."
Her career as an Oriental dancer was definitely launched, and her numbers, combining Oriental dance and striptease, became highly sought-after in society salons and the very restricted circles of men and women of the world, making her a darling of the Tout-Paris, fond of novelty and exoticism.
Frivolous and spendthrift, the dancer led a luxurious lifestyle, frequenting the finest hotels in the European cities where she performed, and spending lavishly on her many conquests. But Mata Hari gave more time and importance to her career as a courtesan than to her artistic career. She had many lovers, including high-ranking military officers, politicians and other influential figures, and let her luck run out.
After many ups and downs, her career dried up, and by the outbreak of the First World War, her dances were no longer attracting the crowds, as the fashion had shifted from oriental numbers to Russian ballets. Penniless, Mata Hari was no longer able to live large and returned to Holland where, in November 1915, she was approached by Carl Krämer, German Consul General, charged with recruiting individuals likely to help Germany by gathering information.
Mata Hari accepted Krämer's offer to gather and pass on information to the German secret service in exchange for 20,000 francs and a code name: H-21. After five weeks in Paris, during which the new spy failed to gather any convincing information, she was sent to Germany's most famous spy, Elsbeth Schragmuller, known as Fräulein Doktor, for training in espionage.
On her return to Paris on June 17, 1916, she found herself in the sights of Captain Georges Ladoux of the intelligence centralization section of the Second Bureau of the Army General Staff. Warned of her suspicious nature by the British authorities, French counter-espionage placed her under constant surveillance at the Grand Hôtel where she was staying.
Taken to the War Ministry, she was questioned about her German connections. Having fallen madly in love with Vadim Maslov, a young Russian officer 15 years her junior in the service of France and being treated at Vittel for an eye injury, Mata Hari accepts Ladoux's proposal to become a double agent and gather information on the enemy, in exchange for a pass to Vittel and a million francs - which will never be paid.
Sent to Madrid, a veritable nest of spies of all nationalities, particularly German, Mata Hari made contact with Captain Arnold von Kalle of the Reich Embassy and seduced a number of German diplomats into providing her with important information, which she promptly passed on to French counter-espionage. But Kalle is not fooled and is suspicious of the spy.
When the Germans realize that they won't be able to get anything interesting out of her, and that the French are also using her, they send a series of telegrams to Berlin in which they report that "agent H-21 has made himself useful", knowing full well that the French secret services will be able to decipher the code used and discover the deception. The trap closes on the spy, who nevertheless decides to return to France to collect her reward for services rendered, and to be reunited with her young lover.
On February 13, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested at theHôtel Elysée Palace, where she was staying, and interrogated the same day by examining magistrate Pierre Bouchardon, who was convinced of her guilt. Imprisoned in the Saint Lazare women's prison, Mata Hari finally confessed her allegiance to the enemy after 14 grueling interrogations . But the spy, realizing the risk of being tried, minimized her role and lost herself in vain attempts to justify her actions, explaining that she had only entrusted out-of-date information to a German intelligence agent.
The investigation was completed on June 21, 1917, and the trial of this "traitor to the nation" began behind closed doors on July 24 of the same year. Although Mata Hari had been cowardly disowned by Captain Ladoux, and no concrete accusations or tangible evidence were presented, the 7 jurors - all men and all military - preferred to emphasize her "immoral and debauched" lifestyle. Some would say that Mata Hari's trial served above all as propaganda to reassert the authority of France, which wanted to hold out until victory, even if it meant shooting a woman.
Mata Hari was found guilty ofintelligence with the enemy during wartime, and was sentenced to death after an unfounded trial, although the nature and extent of her activities were uncertain, and history would later show that Mata Hari was a bogus spy who provided information of little importance.
In the early hours of Monday morning, October 15, 1917, the spy was taken to the Bois de Vincennes alongside a firing squad of Zouaves. Refusing to be blindfolded until the last moment, Mata Hari was shot dead in the ditches of the Vincennes fortress, but not without one last display of panache.
Witness to her final moments, Léon Bizard, chief medical officer of the Préfecture de Police, described Mata Hari's composure in the face of death, in his memoirs published in 1925: "As an officer read out the verdict, the dancer, who had refused to be blindfolded, placed herself against the post, a rope, which was not even tied, passed around her waist.... (...) Mata Hari smiles again at the kneeling Sister Léonide and waves goodbye. The commanding officer raises his saber: a sharp clang, followed by the less dazzling coup de grâce, and the Red Dancer collapses headlong, an inert mass dripping with blood."
For further information:
Mata Hari, the femme fatale victim of the Great War
Extracts from the files of the Conseil de guerre and the intelligence service
Location
Bois de Vincennes
Plaine de la Belle Etoile
75012 Paris 12
More information
Iconographies : Mata Hari at the Musée Guimet Residence permit granted to Mata-Hari. Service Historique des Armées
