Mata Hari
For the Indonesian supermarket/department store chain, see Matahari.Mata Hari was the
stage name of
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle [
1] (
7 August,
1876 –
15 October,
1917), an
exotic dancer and
courtesan who was
executed by firing squad for
espionage during
World War I.
Background
Margaretha Zelle was born in
Leeuwarden,
Netherlands to a Dutch father and a mother of
Javanese descent.[
2] At the age of eighteen she went to live in
Java. In the opening years of the 20th century, she moved to
Paris where she performed as a circus horse rider, using the name
Lady MacLeod. Struggling to earn a living, she also obtained work as an artist's model.
In 1905, she began to win fame as an exotic
Oriental-style dancer. It was then that she adopted the stage name
Mata Hari, which means "sun" (literally, "eye of the day") in
Indonesian and
Malay. [
3]
Promiscuous, flirtatious, and one that openly flaunted her body with a mystique that captivated both her audiences and the public, Mata Hari was literally an overnight success. For her act, she posed as a princess from Java of priestly Indian birth, pretending to have been initiated into the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood, which she was not. In those days it was quite easy for someone possessing a flamboyant personality to
invent a
character, and present it as fact with a good chance of success due to the limits on tele-communications available at the time. This was precisely what Mata Hari did, and with great success. She was photographed numerous times during this point in her career in either scant clothing, or nude. She brought this carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which led to wide acclaim. [
4]
Although the explanations and claims made by her about her origins were total fiction, the act was spectacularly successful because it elevated
exotic dance to a more respectable status, and so broke new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris was to later be world-famous. Her style and her free-willed attitude made her a very popular woman. Also, her willingness to wear or perform in exotic and sexually explicit clothing made her popular. She posed for provocative photos, and mingled in wealthy circles.
Throughout her life she had a fascination with men in uniform. And the war caused the world around her to become an exceedingly fascinating place. Mata Hari was also a successful
courtesan, and had relationships with many high-ranking military officers, politicians and others in influential positions in many countries, including
France,
Russia and
Germany. She was not known for being remarkably beautiful, but had an attractive air about her which people responded to.
In happier times prior to World War I, she had been generally viewed as an artist, a free-spirited bohemian. But as the times grew more grim she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men took her across international borders frequently, which eventually would lead to her downfall. [
5]
Alleged double agent
During
World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Margaretha Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she would travel between France and the Netherlands via
Spain and
England, and her movements inevitably attracted attention. She was courtesan to many high-ranking allied military officers during this time. On one occasion, when interviewed by British
intelligence officers, she admitted to working as an agent for French military intelligence, although the latter would not confirm her story. It is unclear if she lied on this occasion, believing the story made her sound more
intriguing, or if French authorities were using her in such a way, but would not acknowledge her due to the embarrassment and international backlash it could cause.
In January 1917, the German
military attaché in
Madrid transmitted radio messages to
Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, were able to recognise H-21 as Mata Hari. Remarkably, the messages were in a
code that German intelligence knew had already been
broken by the French, leaving historians to suspect that the messages were contrived so that if she was in fact working for the French, they would identify her as a
double agent and effectively neutralise her.
On
13 February,
1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her Paris hotel room. At the time of her arrest, France was at a low point in the war. Morale was down, there was seemingly no end in sight, hundreds of thousands of both
Central Powers and
Anglo-Russian Entente forces had died, and there was a hunger for a scapegoat. The now-famous Dutchwoman seemed to fit the role. Mata Hari was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers. Although it has been speculated since that there was no concrete evidence, she was nevertheless found guilty and was executed by firing squad on
15 October,
1917, at the age of 41.
Disappearance and rumors
Mata Hari's body was not claimed by any family members and was accordingly used for medical study. Her head was embalmed and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris, but in 2000, archivists discovered that the head had disappeared, possibly as early as
1954, when the museum had been relocated. Records dated from 1918 show that the museum also received the rest of the cadaver but none of the remains could later be accounted for.
The fact that a former exotic dancer had been executed as a spy immediately provoked many rumours. One is that she blew a kiss to her executioners, although it is more likely that she blew a kiss to her lawyer, who was a witness to the execution and a former lover of hers. Her dying words were purported to be "Merci, monsieur". Another rumour claims that, in an attempt to distract her executioners, she flung open her coat and exposed her naked body. A third rumour had it that Mata Hari was unusually composed at the execution, refusing to be tied or blindfolded — and that this is because the firing squad was to be bribed to use
blanks for a fake execution, but the plan failed. However, the last tale bears a suspicious resemblance to a plot in
Puccini's earlier opera,
Tosca.
Naturally, popular imagination was fired by the idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent, using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers. This image has made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the
femme fatale.
Much of the enduring popularity is owed to the film entitled
Mata Hari (1931) and starring
Greta Garbo in the leading role. While based on real events in the life of Margaretha Zelle, the plot was largely fictional, appealing to the public appetite for fantasy at the expense of historical fact. Immensely successful as a form of entertainment, the exciting and romantic character in this film inspired subsequent generations of storytellers. Eventually, Mata Hari featured in more films, television series, the
anime series
Read or Die, and in
video games — but increasingly, it is only the use of Margaretha Zelle's famous stage name that bears any resemblance to the real character. Many books have been written about Mata Hari, some of them serious historical and biographical accounts, but many of them highly speculative.
* In the 1967 James Bond spoof
Casino Royale, the fictional character Mata Bond was the daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond. She was a dancer just like her mother, but not a terribly good spy.
* Mata Hari has also been mentioned on the television series
Charmed. The character
Phoebe becomes possessed by Mata Hari's spirit.
* In the
Shadow Hearts video game series, Mata Hari, under her true name, appears in the first two games as a spy. In the first game, she also joins the party early on.
* In the
Indiana Jones series, it is said in the novels that as a teenager, Indiana lost his virginity to Mata Hari.
* Mata Hari is mentioned in "Like It or Not" a song from Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor.
"Cleopatra had her way, Mata Hari too. Whether they were good or bad, is strictly up to you. In the same meaning, she is mentioned in "Shake Your Bon Bon", a song by Latin singer Ricky Martin.
* Another mention in music comes in the
Mary Prankster song
Mata Hari, discussing the reaction of society to openly sexual women.
* The song
As You Turn To Go by
The 6ths contains the lines "I know I'm not supposed to say I'm sorry, I know you've had more loves than Mata Hari".
*
The Kingpins, one of Canada's most famous
Ska bands, paid tribute to the spy in a song titled "Mata Hari" off of their first full length album
Watch Your Back*
Mata Hari Photo Gallery*
Mata Hari - A timeline of her life*
Biography at FemBio — Notable Women International*
Biography at Court TV's Crime Library*
Details of the disappearance of the corpse*
"The Execution of Mata Hari, 1917," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005)
