Mata-Hari: biography of this famous and enigmatic spy

She called herself Mata-Hari, "the eye of the day" in the Malay language.. But while it is true that the exotic island of Java (present-day Indonesia) was the scene of her early youth, she Mata-Hari was not a native of the place. She was a young Dutch girl who had married early, quickly and badly with a military man stationed on the island. And it was there, in the hot Javanese nights, that the girl became a dancer.

She used her eroticism on stage and off to attract men, especially military men, for whom she was clearly fascinated. Ella mata-hari was a courtesan of luxury, but was she also a spy?

Some current studies question this name, since the charges that brought her to trial for spying on her and ultimately placing her before the firing squad, are confused and contradictory. So let's see what really happened.

Brief biography of Mata-Hari

Who was Mata-Hari? What was her real name? Why has she gone down in history as one of the most famous spies, when in reality the information she was able to pass on was scant and of little importance? In this article we will try to unravel all the mysteries that concern the "eye of the day", the beautiful Javanese dancer.

aim higher

Mata-Hari's real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, and she was born in 1876 in Leewarden, the Netherlands.. Her father, Adam Zelle, was a rather modest hat maker, but he had delusions of grandeur and high expectations for his little girl. They say that Mr. Zelle, on her first day of school, put the girl in a wagon pulled by goats. Of course, Margaretha's future companions laughed heartily, but Mr. Zelle had already achieved what he wanted: to have his daughter's name on everyone's lips.

In truth, it was not necessary for Zelle to collaborate in the fame of her girl, since she, Margaretha, possessed a natural magnetism that made her stand out wherever she went. Entering adolescence, Margaretha's beauty began to attract her attention. Tall, sinuous in shape, with thick jet-black hair and large black eyes, the young woman was sought after by everyone. Even by the director of her school. It is not known for sure if she Margaretha encouraged her relationship or if, on the contrary, the man harassed her relentlessly; but the fact is that the young woman was expelled surrounded by insults and controversy.

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The exotic island of Java

That was her first scandal related to a man. She would be followed by many more. However, before becoming the courtesan we all know, she Margaretha married.

In 1895, and possibly desirous of escaping from her family (her mother had died and her father had remarried), Margaretha responds to a newspaper ad in which a certain Rudolf MacLeod, a 39-year-old military man, is looking for a wife to take with him to the island of Javawhere he has been posted. After a brief exchange of letters, where they say that Margaretha introduced a photograph of him to be more "convincing", both are married in Amsterdam on July 11, 1895. Margaret is 19 years old.

The marriage and, above all, her transfer to Indonesia will be crucial in the young woman's life. Because it is there, in the Javanese nights, where she Margaretha learns the traditional dances and, especially, the love rituals of the natives, which will serve her well for her future conquests. Perhaps, in reality, the only thing the Dutch woman wanted was to shake off the pain that the death of her little son Norman-John had caused her. In 1899, her two children became seriously ill.

Only the girl was saved. A death wrapped in a thick veil of mystery about which nothing is known even today. Had Margaretha given her children the syphilis that her husband had previously passed on to her? Or was the bizarre story that spread from mouth to mouth true, in which it was told that a servant her native she had poisoned the children in revenge for the mistreatment she had received from her husband by MacLeod?

Mata Hari is born

The death of little Norman-John aggravates Rudolf's alcoholism and drives a deep chasm between the couple. When they return to the Netherlands in 1903, they are already legally separated; the divorce is ratified a few years later.

Rudolf had taken custody of Louise Jeanne, his surviving daughter, so he was not sending any pension to his ex-wife. Margaretha's situation was really dramatic; Driven by need (and not lust as her detractors claimed), she was forced to sell her body. Thus, she begins to pose for erotic photographs and sleeps with important people who pay for an increasingly luxurious existence. Because yes, it seems that Margaretha, the true daughter of her father, she had very high aspirations.

Her splendid dark beauty and her knowledge of her Javanese dances inspire him with the ultimate idea of ​​her: she will impersonate Mata-Hari, an enigmatic and beautiful princess of the island of Java, motherless and educated, according to the biography that she herself invented, in a Hindu temple, from which she collected her sensual dances and her exotic secrets.

Today we find it unlikely that the public would believe such hoaxes, but we have to understand that, At the end of the 19th century, the Orient held an almost morbid fascination for Europeans.. Even more; the extraordinary repression of the Victorian era meant that any display of a nude or nearly nude body was both scandal and success. What did it matter if the young woman who danced covered in transparent fabrics, writhing "lewdly", she was Javanese or not. Anything was accepted as long as it released, for a few moments, her corseted and urgent libido.

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Touching the sky with your hands

Success came to Margaretha relatively late; she was almost 30 years old when she first danced before the public with her new identity. It was March 13, 1905; the setting, the Guimet Museum, owned by Émile Étienne Guimet. Since then, her fame as an exotic dancer only grew.

The performances of the supposed Javanese princess satisfied the repressed sexual appetite of turn-of-the-century society. Abrupt movements of the hips, impossible positions and, above all, some thin gauze that subtly covered her body, which Mata-Hari was getting rid of as the dance progressed.

They say that she was completely naked, although others say that a leotard of the same color as her skin covered her body. What is certain is that Margaretha always refused to show her breasts, which she covered with a kind of jeweled bra; It is not clear if she was due to her complex (she had very small ones) or because of the supposed scar that her husband had left her in a fit of anger.

Little by little, in addition to theaters and private rooms, the rooms of the big shots of society were opening up for Mata-Hari. The Dutch woman began to lead an exorbitant way of life, paid for by her increasingly numerous and powerful lovers.

playing spy

The greatest misfortune in Margaretha's life was probably the outbreak of the First World War.. Among the (long) list of Mata-Hari's lovers were soldiers of various nationalities, which could be a real setback for her safety.

From here, the information we have about Margaretha is twisted and she delves into recesses where truth, legend and lies are mixed. It has been said that he became a spy for France just to be guaranteed to get close to the front lines. to see who, according to her, was the great love of her life, the Russian pilot Vadim Maslov, who served in the military French. According to these sources, among which are the historians Norman Polmer and Thomas Allen, the Deuxième Bureau, that is, the French secret service, she guaranteed him to visit her lover in the field hospital if she agreed to pass them information.

Apparently, when France hired Mata-Hari as a spy, she was already working for the German enemies, which means that she, for a while, was a double agent. It seems that, during his stay in Madrid (capital of a neutral Spain, where spies of all nationalities swarmed), Mata-Hari maintained conversations with the German military attaché, Arnold Kalle, a fact that was used in his later trial to prove that he had passed French information to the germans. This has never been verified, and it may even be that Mata-Hari's meetings with Kalle were strictly to extract useful information for France.

A high-profile (and irregular) trial

At the beginning of 1917, the French receive a German encrypted message through their radio station located on top of the Eiffel Tower. In the message, Kalle talks about the spy H-21, who would be working for Germany. All the characteristics coincide with Mata-Hari, so the French secret services have no doubt: Margaretha is playing both sides.

On February 13, the dancer is arrested in her room at the Elysee Palace hotel in Paris, on charges of espionage for the enemy.. It seems that, to support the accusation, the people who searched the room declared that they had found substances that allowed the manufacture of invisible ink. However, everything indicates that these substances were nothing more than the mercury that Mata-Hari used to treat the ulcers that syphilis had left him.

The trial was riddled with irregularities. The evidence that was presented was inconclusive, and she declared at all times that she had remained faithful to France. Famous is the phrase that they say she yelled during the session: “Whore? Yeah. traitor? Never!". On the other hand, her defense attorney had no experience in military trials and made a poor intervention. Mata-Hari was doomed beforehand.

The sentence was capital punishment by firing squad, which was ratified at dawn on October 15, 1917.. Mata-Hari appeared neatly and elegantly dressed, and eyewitnesses state that she, before falling under the bullets, blew the squad a kiss.

Was Mata-Hari really a spy? Possibly he did pass on some information to the French, information that all sources suggest was of little or no importance to the conduct of the war. However, it is not proven that Mata-Hari worked for Germany. If so, it would all have been a ruse hatched by the Germans to get rid of her. Supporting this theory is the fact that when they sent the telegram the Germans knew full well that the French they had decrypted his code for months, so it was evident that the supposedly "encrypted" message would be read by the enemy. Did they send it on purpose?

But if so, why did they want Mata-Hari to disappear? Some theories even suggest that the message in question was rigged by the French secret service itself, commanded by a certain George Ladoux... and that the trial and subsequent execution of Mata-Hari would have served, simply, as a maneuver to boost the morale of the jaded French.

Be that as it may, Margaretha Geertrudia Zelle has gone down in history as a true femme fatale and a talented spy. And probably neither is true. Or, at least, not entirely.