:en:Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born 7 August 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, to Antje van der Meulen (1842–1891) and her husband, Adam Zelle (1840–1910).{{Cite web |title=Family Trees - Margaretha Gertruida Zelle |url=http://www.praamsma.org/familytrees/Margaretha_Gertruida_Zelle.html |website=Praamsma.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713141731/http://www.praamsma.org/familytrees/Margaretha_Gertruida_Zelle.html |archive-date=13 July 2017 }}{{Cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50EEAAAAMBAJ&dq=mata+hari+father+hat&pg=PA6|title=Speaking of Pictures... These are from Mata Hari's Scrapbook |magazine=Life |date=18 December 1939 |access-date=18 January 2025 |page=6 }} She had three younger brothers: Johannes Hendriks, Arie Anne, and Cornelis Coenraad. She was affectionately called "M'greet" by her family.{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ErCoDwAAQBAJ&q=margaretha+zelle+siblings&pg=PT7 |last=Kerr |first=Gordon |year=2011 |title=Treacherous Women: Sex, temptation and betrayal |isbn=978-1908698193 |page=|publisher=Canary Press eBooks }} Despite traditional assertions that Mata Hari was partly of Jewish, Malaysian,{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=G3ZZAAAAMAAJ&q=magda+sonja |last=Parish |first=James Robert |year=1992 |title=Prostitution in Hollywood Films: Plots, Critiques, Casts, and Credits for 389 Theatrical and Made-for-television Releases |place= |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=978-0899506777 |page=}} or Javanese, i.e., Indonesian descent, scholars conclude she had no Jewish or Asian ancestry, and both of her parents were Dutch.{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rb-GDAAAQBAJ&q=mata+hari+descent&pg=PA27 |last=Cohen |first=M |year=2010 |title= Performing Otherness: Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905–1952 |publisher=Springer |access-date=15 October 2017 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-0230309005}} Her father owned a hat factory and shop, made investments in the oil industry, and became affluent enough to give Margaretha and her siblings a lavish early childhood{{Cite web |last=Rosenberg |first=Jennifer |title=Biography of Mata Hari, Infamous World War I Spy |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/mata-hari-1779223 |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}} that included exclusive schools until the age of 13.{{cite web |title=Mata Hari |url=http://www.worldofbiography.com/9241-Mata%20Hari/life.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100915110718/http://www.worldofbiography.com/9241-Mata%20Hari/life.htm |archive-date=15 September 2010 |access-date=5 July 2010 |website=World of Biography}}

Soon after Margaretha's father went bankrupt in 1889, her parents divorced, and her mother died in 1891. Her father remarried in Amsterdam on 9 February 1893 to Susanna Catharina ten Hoove (1844–1913). The family fell apart, and Margaretha was sent to live with her godfather, Mr. Visser, in Sneek. She studied to be a kindergarten teacher in Leiden, but when the headmaster began to flirt with her conspicuously, she was removed from the institution by her godfather.{{Cite web |last=Noe |first=Denise |title=Mata Hari — The Story of Mata Hari: Introduction — Crime Library |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209235715/http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/1.html |archive-date=9 February 2015 }} A few months later, she fled to her uncle's home in The Hague.

At 18, Margaretha answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch colonial army captain Rudolf MacLeod (1856–1928), who was living in what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and was looking for a wife. Margaretha married MacLeod in Amsterdam on 11 July 1895. He was the son of Captain John Brienen MacLeod (a descendant of the Gesto branch of the MacLeods of Skye, hence his Scottish surname) and his wife Baroness Dina Louisa Sweerts de Landas. The marriage enabled Zelle to move into the Dutch upper class and placed her finances on a sound footing. She moved with her husband to Malang on the east side of the island of Java, travelling out on the {{SS|Prinses Amalia}} in May 1897. They had two children, Norman-John MacLeod (1897–1899) and Louise Jeanne MacLeod (1898–1919).{{cn|date=October 2022}}

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The marriage was overall a disappointment.Waagenaar, 1965, p. 22 Rudolf was an alcoholic, physically abused Margaretha, and blamed her for his lack of promotion. He openly kept a concubine, a socially accepted practice in the Dutch East Indies at the time. When Rudolf was posted to Medan, Margaretha and the children remained in Toempoeng with the family of Mr. van Rheede, the government comptroller.Waagenaar, 1965, p. 24 Friends of Margaretha's in the Netherlands recall her writing to them around this time to say that she had taken the name Mata Hari, the word for "sun" in the local Indonesian language (literally, "eye of the day").Waagenaar, 1965, p. 38

At Rudolf's urging, Margaretha returned to him, but his behavior did not change. In 1899, their children fell violently ill from complications relating to the treatment of syphilis contracted from their parents,"Why Mata Hari Wasn't a Cunning Spy After All". National Geographic. 12 November 2017{{page needed|date=October 2021}} though the family claimed an irate servant poisoned them. Jeanne survived, but Norman died. Some sources{{Unreliable source?|reason=World of Biography is just a web site; recent reliable sources don't seem to support this idea any more|date=September 2024}} maintain that one of Rudolf's enemies may have poisoned their supper to kill both of their children. After moving back to the Netherlands, the couple officially separated on 30 August 1902. The divorce became final in 1906, and Margaretha was awarded custody of Jeanne. Rudolf was legally required to pay child support but never did. Once when Jeanne visited Rudolf, he did not return her to her mother. Margaretha did not have the resources to fight the situation and accepted it, believing that while Rudolf had been an abusive husband, he had been a good father. Jeanne later died at the age of 21, possibly from complications related to syphilis.{{cite book |last=Shipman |first=Pat |year=2007 |title=Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari |place=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn= 978-0-06-081728-2 |page= [https://archive.org/details/femmefatalelovel00ship/page/450 450] |url= https://archive.org/details/femmefatalelovel00ship/page/450}}

File:Mata Hari dancing in the Musée Guimet (1905) - 1.jpg

In 1903, Zelle moved to Paris, where she performed as a circus horse rider using the name Lady MacLeod, much to the disapproval of the Dutch MacLeods. Struggling to earn a living, she also posed as an artist's model.{{Cite web|last=Myall|first=Steve|date=17 October 2017|title=Rare pictures of dancer and "spy" Mata Hari who was executed by firing squad|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/gallery/rare-pictures-exotic-dancer-spy-11356154|access-date=7 December 2020|website=mirror|language=en}}

By 1904, Mata Hari rose to prominence as an exotic dancer. She was a contemporary of dancers Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, leaders in the early modern dance movement, which around the turn of the 20th century, looked to Asia and Egypt for artistic inspiration. Gabriel Astruc became her personal booking agent.

Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences and was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet on 13 March 1905.{{Cite web |last=Noe |first=Denise |title=Mata Hari Is Born — Mata Hari — Crime Library |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/5.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210044610/http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/5.html |archive-date=10 February 2015 }} She became the long-time mistress of the millionaire industrialist Émile Étienne Guimet, who had founded the Musée. Entertainers of her era commonly invented colourful stories about their origins, and she posed as a Javanese princess of priestly Hindu birth, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so. Some of these pictures were obtained by MacLeod and strengthened his case in keeping custody of their daughter.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=G0UwDwAAQBAJ&q=macleod+custody+mata+hari&pg=PT86 |last=Craig |first=Mary W |year=2017 |title=A Tangled Web: Dancer, Courtesan, Spy |place=Cheltenham |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0750984720 |page=}}

File:Margaretha Zelle, alias Mata Hari.jpg

Mata Hari brought a carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which garnered wide acclaim. The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled breastplate and some ornaments upon her arms and head. She was never seen bare-chested as she was self-conscious about having small breasts. Early in her career, she wore for her performances a bodystocking that was similar in color to her skin, but that was later omitted.

Her act was successful because it elevated erotic dance to a more respectable status and broke new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris was later world-famous. Her style and free-willed attitude made her popular, as did her eagerness to perform in exotic and revealing clothing. She posed for provocative photos and mingled in wealthy circles. Since most Europeans at the time were unfamiliar with the Dutch East Indies, Mata Hari was thought of as exotic, and her claims were accepted as genuine. One enthusiastic French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms."{{cite web| title = Biography of Mata Hari| publisher = The Biography Channel|date=May 2016| url = http://www.biography.com/people/mata-hari-9402348#spy-for-france| access-date = 10 August 2016}} One journalist in Vienna wrote after seeing one of her performances that Mata Hari was "slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair" and that her face "makes a strange foreign impression."

File:Mata-Hari 1910.jpg

By about 1910, myriad imitators had arisen. Critics began to opine that the success and dazzling features of the popular Mata Hari were due to cheap exhibitionism and lacked artistic merit. Although she continued to schedule important social events throughout Europe, she was disdained by serious cultural institutions as a dancer who did not know how to dance.

Mata Hari's career went into decline after 1912. On 13 March 1915, she performed in the last show of her career.Mata Hari – The True Story. By Russell Warren Howe, p. 63. 1986 She had begun her career relatively late as a dancer and had started putting on weight. However, by this time, she had become a successful courtesan, known more for her sensuality and eroticism than for her classical beauty. She had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Before World War I, she was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited bohemian, but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress.Joanna Bourke, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric, 'Mata Hari: Femmes Fatales' (2020)

File:Mata Hari, by Jacob Merkelbach.jpg

During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she traveled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain, and her movements inevitably attracted attention. During the war, Zelle was involved in what was described as a very intense romantic-sexual relationship with Captain Vadim Maslov, a 23-year-old Russian Staff Captain of the 1st Special Infantry Regiment serving with the French, whom she called the love of her life.{{cite book |last1=Polmer |first1=Norman |last2=Allen |first2=Thomas |year=1998 |title=Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage |place=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0679425144 |page=357}} Maslov was part of the 50,000-strong Russian Expeditionary Force sent to the Western Front in the spring of 1916.{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Bz-h6IDlzeIC&q=vadim+maslov&pg=PA330 |last=Cockfield |first=Jamie H |year=1997 |title=With Snow on Their Boots: The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I |place= |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312173562}}

In April 1916, Maslov was wounded fighting in the ill-fated Nivelles Offensive to capture the German controlled fortified Brimont mountain range, losing his sight in his left eye, leading Zelle to ask for permission to visit her wounded lover at the hospital where he was staying near the front.

As a citizen of a neutral country, Zelle would not normally be allowed near the front. Zelle was met by agents from the Deuxième Bureau who told her that she would be allowed to see Maslov if she agreed to spy for France.

Before the war, Zelle had performed as Mata Hari several times before the Crown Prince Wilhelm, eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II and nominally a senior German general on the Western Front. The Deuxième Bureau believed she could obtain information by seducing the Crown Prince for military secrets. In fact, his involvement was minimal, and it was German government propaganda that promoted the image of the Crown Prince as a great warrior, the worthy successor to the Hohenzollern monarchs who had made Prussia strong and powerful.{{cite book |last=Wheeler-Bennett |first=John |year=1954 |title=The Nemesis of Power: The German Army In Politics 1918–1945 |place=London |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-1403918123 |pages=12–13}} They wanted to avoid publicizing that the man expected to be the next Kaiser was a playboy noted for womanizing, partying, and indulging in alcohol, who spent another portion of his time associating with far right-wing politicians, with the intent to have his father declared insane and deposed.

File:Painting of Mata Hari by Isaac Israels.jpg, 1916]]

Unaware that the Crown Prince did not have much to do with the running of Army Group Crown Prince or the 5th Army, the Deuxième Bureau offered Zelle 1 million francs if she could seduce him and provide France with good intelligence about German plans. The fact that the Crown Prince had, before 1914, never commanded a unit larger than a regiment, and was now supposedly commanding both an army and an army group at the same time should have been a clue that his role in German decision-making was mostly nominal. Zelle's contact with the Deuxième Bureau was Captain Georges Ladoux, who later emerged as one of her principal accusers.

In November 1916 she was traveling from Spain aboard the steamship {{USS|Zeelandia||2}}.{{cite web |url= https://www.friesmuseum.nl/collectie/een-greep-uit-de-collectie/mata-hari-het-mysterie/blog-mata-hari-hanneke-boonstra |title=Blog Mata Hari |publisher= Fries Museum |access-date=21 May 2023}} When the ship called at the British port of Falmouth she was arrested and taken to London, where she was interrogated at length by Sir Basil Thomson, assistant commissioner at New Scotland Yard in charge of counter-espionage. He gave an account of this in his 1922 book Queer People, saying that she eventually admitted to working for the Deuxième Bureau. Initially detained in Canon Row police station, she was then released and stayed at the Savoy Hotel. A full transcript of the interview is in Britain's National Archives and was broadcast, with Mata Hari played by Eleanor Bron, on the independent station LBC in 1980.{{cite web |url= http://bufvc.ac.uk/tvandradio/lbc/index.php/segment/0105800279001 |publisher=British Universities Film & Video Council |title=The London Interrogations |access-date=12 October 2020}} 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.{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Yh4VCgAAQBAJ&q=mata+hari+french+authorities&pg=PA130 |last=Proctor |first=Tammy M |year=2006 |title=Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War |place=New York |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0814766941 |page=}}

In late 1916, Zelle traveled to Madrid, where she met the German military attaché Major Arnold Kalle and asked if he could arrange a meeting with the Crown Prince.{{cite book |last1=Polmer |first1=Norman |last2=Allen |first2=Thomas |year=1998 |title=Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage |place=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0679425144 |page=358}} During this period, Zelle apparently offered to share French secrets with Germany in exchange for money, though whether this was because of greed or an attempt to set up a meeting with Crown Prince Wilhelm remains unclear.

In January 1917, Major Kalle transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy code-named H-21, whose biography so closely matched Zelle's that it was obvious that Agent H-21 could be none other than Mata Hari. The Deuxième Bureau intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, identified H-21 as Mata Hari. The messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, suggesting that the messages were contrived to have Zelle arrested by the French.{{cite book |last=Howe |first=Russell Warren |year=1986 |title=Mata Hari: The True Story |place=New York |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co |isbn=978-0396087175 |page=143}}

General Walter Nicolai, the chief IC (intelligence officer) of the German Army, had grown very annoyed that Mata Hari had provided him with no intelligence worthy of the name, instead selling the Germans mere Paris gossip about the sex lives of French politicians and generals, and decided to terminate her employment by exposing her as a German spy to the French.{{cite book |last1=Polmer |first1=Norman |last2=Allen |first2=Thomas |year=1998 |title=Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage |place=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0679425144 |page=394}}

File:Mata Hari on the day of her arrest 13-2-1917.jpg

In December 1916, the Second Bureau of the French War Ministry let Mata Hari obtain the names of six Belgian agents. Five were suspected of submitting fake material and working for the Germans, while the sixth was suspected of being a double agent for Germany and France. Two weeks after Mata Hari had left Paris for a trip to Madrid, the Germans executed the double agent while the five others continued their operations. This development proved to the Second Bureau that Mata Hari had communicated the names of the six spies to the Germans.Waagenaar, 1965, p. 258

On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris. She was tried on 24 July, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her.

{{blockquote| A harlot? Yes, but a traitoress, never!|Phrase attributed to Mata Hari during the trial}}

Zelle's principal interrogator, who grilled her relentlessly, was Captain Pierre Bouchardon; he later prosecuted her at trial. Bouchardon established that much of the Mata Hari persona was invented. Far from being a Javanese princess, Zelle was Dutch, which he used as evidence of her dubious and dishonest character at her trial. Zelle admitted to Bouchardon that she had accepted 20,000 francs from a German diplomat and former lover as reimbursement for belongings taken from her by German authorities. Bouchardon claimed that this was, in fact, payment to her for spying for Germany. In the meantime, Ladoux had been preparing a case against his former agent by casting all of her activities in the worst possible light, going so far as to engage in evidence tampering.

In 1917, France had been badly shaken by the Great Mutinies of the French Army in the spring of 1917 following the failure of the Nivelle Offensive and massive strikes. France might have collapsed from war exhaustion. Having one German spy on whom everything that went wrong with the war could be blamed was convenient for the French government. Mata Hari seemed the perfect scapegoat. The case against her received maximum publicity in the French press and led to her importance being greatly exaggerated.{{cite web |last=Arbuckle |first=Alex |title=The Dramatic Tale of Mata Hari Dancer, courtesan, scapegoat, spy? |publisher=Retronaut |date=May 2016 |url= http://mashable.com/2016/04/01/mata-hari/#zA5Ty6j4ikqf|access-date=10 August 2016}} The Canadian historian Wesley Wark stated in a 2014 interview that Mata Hari was never an important spy but a scapegoat for French military failures that had nothing to do with her. Wark stated: "They needed a scapegoat, and she was a notable target for scapegoating."{{cite news |last=Edwards |first=Peter |title=Condemned spy Mata Hari glib during final interrogation: MI5 files |newspaper=The Toronto Star |date=24 April 2014 |url= https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/04/24/condemned_spy_mata_hari_glib_during_final_interrogation_mi5_files.html |access-date=10 August 2016}} The British historian Julie Wheelwright stated: "She really did not pass on anything that you couldn't find in the local newspapers in Spain." Wheelwright described Zelle as "an independent woman, a divorcée, a citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan, and a dancer, which made her a perfect scapegoat for the French, who were then losing the war. She was ... held up as an example of what might happen if your morals were too loose."

Claiming her innocence, Zelle wrote letters to the Dutch Ambassador in Paris. "My international connections are due [to] my work as a dancer, nothing else .... Because I really did not spy, it is terrible that I cannot defend myself."{{Cite web |url=http://www.gahetna.nl/actueel/nieuws/2011/brieven-mata-hari |title=Brieven van Mata Hari (Letters of Mata Hari) |work=Dutch National Archives. Gahetna.nl |date=17 June 2011 |access-date=15 October 2011 |lang=nl}} The most terrible and heartbreaking moment for Mata Hari during the trial occurred when her lover Maslov—by now deeply embittered as a result of losing his eye in combat—declined to testify for her and told her that he did not care whether she was convicted.{{Cite book |last=Cockfield |first=Jamie H |year=1997 |title=With Snow on Their Boots: The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I |place= |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312173562 |pages=330–31}} When Zelle learned that Maslov had abandoned her, she fainted.{{Cite book |last=Cockfield |first=Jamie H |year=1997 |title=With Snow on Their Boots: The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I |place= |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312173562 |pages=331}}

Her defense counsel, veteran international lawyer {{ill|Édouard Clunet|qid=Q16335955}},{{cite book |last=Macedonio |first=Mauro |year=2017 |title=Mata Hari, a life through images' |place= |publisher=Tricase: Youcanprint |isbn=978-8892637818 |page=207}} faced impossible odds; he was denied permission to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or to examine his witnesses directly.{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6qX2DAAAQBAJ&q=%C3%89douard+Clunet+mata+hari+examine+witnesses&pg=PA31 |last=Milton |first=Giles |year=2016 |title=When Churchill Slaughtered Sheep and Stalin Robbed a Bank: History's Unknown Chapters |place= |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan |isbn=978-1250078759 |page=}} Bouchardon used the fact that Zelle was a woman as evidence of her guilt, saying: "Without scruples, accustomed to making use of men, she is the type of woman who is born to be a spy." Zelle has often been portrayed as a femme fatale, the dangerous, seductive woman who uses her sexuality to manipulate men effortlessly, but others view her differently: in the words of the American historians Norman Polmer and Thomas Allen she was "naïve and easily duped", a victim of men rather than a victimizer.

Although news reports following her execution claimed she had admitted to spying for Germany, Mata Hari made no such admission. She maintained throughout her ordeal that she had never been a German spy. At her trial, Zelle vehemently insisted that her sympathies were with the Allies and declared her passionate love of France, her adopted homeland. In October 2001, documents released from the archives of MI5 (British counter-intelligence) were used by a Dutch group, the Mata Hari Foundation, to ask the French government to exonerate Zelle as they argued that the MI5 files proved she was not guilty of the charges she was convicted of. A spokesperson from the Mata Hari Foundation argued that at most, Zelle was a low-level spy who provided no secrets to either side, stating: "We believe that there are sufficient doubts concerning the dossier of information that was used to convict her to warrant re-opening the case. Maybe she wasn't entirely innocent, but it seems clear she wasn't the master-spy whose information sent thousands of soldiers to their deaths, as has been claimed."

File:Margaretha Zelle voor de executie.jpg

Zelle was executed by a firing squad consisting of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on 15 October 1917. She was 41.{{cite news |last=Siegel |first=Rachel |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2017/10/15/new-picture-emerges-mata-hari-who-faced-firing-squad-years-ago/1LIx3r433WFzNRZ2KTHXuO/story.html |title=New picture emerges of Mata Hari, who faced firing squad 100 years ago |work=The Boston Globe |publisher=Washington Post |date=16 October 2017 |access-date=16 October 2017}} According to an eyewitness account by British reporter Henry Wales, she was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.

A 1934 New Yorker article reported that at her execution, she wore "a neat Amazonian tailored suit, especially made for the occasion, and a pair of new white gloves",{{cite book |last=Flanner |first=Janet |year=1979 |title=Paris was Yesterday: 1925–1939 |place=New York |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-005068-4 |page=126}} though another account indicates she wore the same suit, low-cut blouse, and tricorn hat ensemble which had been picked out by her accusers for her to wear at trial, and which was still the only full, clean outfit which she had in prison. Neither description matches photographic evidence. Wales recorded her death, saying that after the volley of shots rang out, "Slowly, inertly, she settled to her knees, her head up always, and without the slightest change of expression on her face. For the fraction of a second it seemed she tottered there, on her knees, gazing directly at those who had taken her life. Then she fell backward, bending at the waist, with her legs doubled up beneath her." A non-commissioned officer then walked up to her body, pulled out his revolver, and shot her in the head to make sure she was dead.{{cite web |url= http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/matahari.htm |title=Execution of Mata Hari |work=Eyewitnesstohistory.com |date=19 October 1917 |access-date=15 October 2011}}

{{Wikisource|Death Comes to Mata Hari}}

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. In 2000, archivists discovered that it had disappeared, possibly as early as 1954, according to curator Roger Saban, during the museum's relocation.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Rq2dCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 |last1=Donald |first1=Graeme |last2=Wiest |first2=Andrew |last3=Shepherd |first3=William |year=2013 |title=Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis: The military origins of everyday words and phrases |place=London |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1846033001 |page=200 |access-date=26 January 2017}} Her head remains missing.{{cite news |url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/for-sale-beethovens-skull_b_427015.html |title=For Sale: Beethoven's Skull |first=Keith |last=Thomson |date=20 March 2010 |work=HuffPost |access-date=26 January 2017}}{{cite web |url= https://strangeremains.com/2015/07/23/the-heads-of-these-5-people-were-stolen-from-their-graves/ |title=5 historical figures whose heads have been stolen |work=Strange Remains |date=23 July 2015 |access-date=26 January 2017}} Records dated 1918 show that the museum also received the rest of the body, but none of the remains could later be accounted for.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6MN3BgAAQBAJ&q=mata+hari+body+1918&pg=PT138 |last1=Johnson |first1=Anna |last2=Roberts |first2=Paul G |year=2015 |title=Style icons |volume=3 – Bombshells |place= |publisher=Fashion Industry Broadcast |isbn=978-1621544050}}

Mata Hari's sealed trial and other related documents, a total of 1,275 pages, were declassified by the French Army in 2017, one hundred years after her execution.{{cite web |url= https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/arkotheque/visionneuse/visionneuse.php?arko=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#uielem_move=514.566650390625%2C73&uielem_islocked=0&uielem_zoom=33&uielem_brightness=0&uielem_contrast=0&uielem_isinverted=0&uielem_rotate=F |title=Zelle Margueritte Gertrude, 07-08-1876 |publisher=République Française Ministère des Armées |year=2017 |access-date=1 February 2020}}

File:Plakboek mata hari.JPG

File:Mata Hari.jpg

The Frisian museum (Dutch: Fries Museum) in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, contains a "Mata Hari Room". Included in the exhibit are two of her personal scrapbooks and an oriental rug embroidered with the footsteps of her fan dance.{{Cite web |title=Women Spies: Mata Hari |url=http://www.sameshield.com/spies/hari.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030513140111/http://www.sameshield.com/spies/hari.html |archive-date=13 May 2003 }} Located in Mata Hari's native town, the museum is well known for researching the life and career of Leeuwarden's world-famous citizen. The largest-ever Mata Hari exhibition was opened in the Museum of Friesland on 14 October 2017, one hundred years after her death.

Mata Hari's birthplace is located in the building at Kelders 33. The building suffered smoke and water damage during a fire in 2013 but was later restored. Architect Silvester Adema studied old drawings of the storefront to reconstruct it as it appeared when Adam Zelle, the father of Mata Hari, had a hat shop there. In 2016, an information centre (belevingscentrum) was created in the building displaying mementos of Mata Hari.{{cite web |url=http://www.lc.nl/friesland/Geboortehuis-Mata-Hari-als-%E2%80%98belevingscentrum-21127477.html |title=Geboortehuis Mata Hari als 'belevingscentrum' (Mata Hari's birthplace as information centre) |newspaper=Leeuwarder Courant |author=Asing Walthaus |date=3 February 2017 |access-date=17 August 2017 |language=NL |quote=[Translated]A hairdressing business owned by Wyb en Wilma Feddema was in the building at the Kelders 33 until the 2013 fire. The store already had some posters about Mata Hari. ... Architect Silvester Adem, based on drawings and old images, reconstructed the shop façade of the hat shop of Adam Zelle, the father of Margarethe. [There were] two window displays, door in the middle and nearby another door to the apartments. That entrance was previously at the back of the building. There is again a hairdresser and an 'experience centre' (belevingscentrum) about Mata Hari. A beamer projects a lantern-like movie of forty minutes with slides and film fragments on the white wall; there are showcases, pictures, and a large table with everything about Mata Hari, from liqueur to bonbons.}}

{{in popular culture|date=April 2024}}

File:The Execution of Mata Hari.jpg

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 made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale.{{cite book |last=Samuels |first=Diane |year=2002 |title=The True Life Fiction of Mata Hari |place= |publisher=Nick Hern Books |isbn=978-1854596727 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=38sRN2MO4NgC&pg=PR15}}

• Mata Hari (1920)
• Mata Hari (1927), a German production
• Mata Hari (1931), a Hollywood motion picture starring Greta Garbo
• In the 1939 romantic comedy Cafe Society, Mattie Harriett is hired by Allyn Joslyn's gossip columnist to spy on the film's two protagonists, Fred MacMurray and Madeleine Carroll.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IbpwDl1nt0MC&dq=%22lillian+yarbo%22&pg=PA34 |last=Nissen |first=Alex |year=2007 |title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties |place=Jefferson |publisher=McMillan and Company |page=34 |isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8}}
• Mata Hari, Agent H21 (1964) with Jeanne Moreau as Mata-Hari, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Claude Rich, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Marie Dubois, and Charles Denner, directed by Jean-Louis Richard
• In the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale, Joanna Pettet played Mata Bond, said to be the daughter of James Bond and Mata Hari.
• In the 1966 Doris Day movie, The Glass Bottom Boat, Doris Day is portrayed in a dream sequence as Mata Hari, a femme fatale come to steal national secrets from the male lead.
• In the 1968 Spanish comedy {{lang|es-ES|Operación Mata Hari}}, Mata Hari (Carmen de Lirio) retires with an accountant and her Spanish maid Guillermina (Gracita Morales) impersonates her in an espionage imbroglio.{{cite news |title=Operación Mata Hari (1968) Película - PLAY Cine |url=https://www.abc.es/play/pelicula/operacion-mata-hari-21379/ |access-date=15 March 2022 |work=ABC |date=28 March 2017 |language=es}}
• In the 1970 American series Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, a chimpanzee named "Mata Hairi" plays the role of a secret agent, voiced by Joan Gerber.
• In the 1972 British comedy film Up the Front, Zsa Zsa Gabor portrays Mata Hari.
• Mata Hari (1981), television series
• "Mata Hari; The Magic Camera", an episode of Fantasy Island (1982)
• Mata Hari, a 1985 film
• In "Paris, October 1916", a 1993 episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, she is portrayed by Domiziana Giordano. Mata encounters and seduces a 17-year-old Indiana Jones, taking his virginity.{{cite episode |title=Paris, October 1916 |series=The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles |network=American Broadcasting Company |date=10 July 1993 |season=2 |number=16}} "Paris, October 1916" was later re-edited into the second half of the film Demons of Deception.
• Mata Hari (2016)
• Mata Hari (2017), short film
• Mata Hari: The Naked Spy (2017)
• Mata Hari (2017), a 12-episode Russian-Portuguese TV series, stars Vahina Giocante in the title role.
• In the 2021 movie The King's Man Mata Hari is portrayed by Austrian actress Valerie Pachner.

• Mata Hari in 1967, starring Pernell Roberts and Marisa Mell
• Mata Hari by Lene Lovich, Judge Smith, and Les Chappell, premiered in 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOQkBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA265 |first=Richard |last=Balls |year=2014 |title=Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story |place= |publisher=Soundcheck Books |via=Google Books |isbn=978-0957570061}}
• Mata!, with words and music by Stuart Brayson, premiered at Blackpool Grand Theatre in June 1995.
• Mata Hari at the Moulin Rouge by Frank Wildhorn debuted in Seoul, South Korea in March 2016.
• One Last Night with Mata Hari, written by Craig Walker with music by John Burge, debuted at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario, in January 2017.{{cite web |url= http://www.queensu.ca/eventscalendar/calendar/events/one-last-night-mata-hari-3 |title=One Last Night with Mata Hari |website=www.queensu.ca |access-date=28 January 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.thewhig.com/2017/01/11/mata-hari-gets-one-last-night |title=Mata Hari gets one last night |last=nurun.com |website=The Kingston Whig-Standard |access-date=28 January 2018|date=11 January 2017}}
• In 2022, its musical adaptation by director Kim Moon Jeong and performed by the South Korean singer Solar from Mamamoo.

• Eurovision Song Contest
• In 1976, Norway participated with the song "Mata Hari", performed by Anne-Karine Strøm.
• In 2021, Azerbaijan participated with the song "Mata Hari", performed by Samira Efendi.{{Cite web |last=Ismayilova |first=Laman |date=24 May 2021 |title=Efendi shines on Eurovision stage |url=https://menafn.com/1102124127/Efendi-shines-on-Eurovision-stage-PHOTOVIDEO |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=menafn.com}}
• In the 1982 release of Birds & Bees by the Belgian band Telex (band), the tenth track on the album is dedicated to Mata Hari.
• In 1995, Israeli singer Ofra Haza released a single titled "Mata Hari".{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Ty8hOW9T8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/_8Ty8hOW9T8| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|title=Mata Hari – Ofra Haza|date=March 2011 |via=www.youtube.com}}{{cbignore}}
• In 2018, French nu-disco band L'Impératrice released their album titled 'Matahari' containing a song of the same name.{{cite web | url=https://open.spotify.com/album/38tQz6l5GxRE6vmQTViG5N | title=Matahari | website=Spotify }}
• In 2019, English singer-songwriter Frank Turner released a song about Mata Hari entitled "Eye of the Day" on his album No Man's Land.{{cite web |title=Frank Turner – Eye of the Day |url=https://genius.com/Frank-turner-eye-of-the-day-lyrics |website=Genius Lyrics}}{{cite web |title=Frank Turner – No Man's Land |url=https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/frank-turner/no-man-s-land/lp-plus |website=Rough Trade}}
• In 2020, the Dutch singer Kovacs released a single titled “Mata Hari”.

• Mata Hari is a point and click videogame released in 2008. In the game you play as Mata Hari herself in a fictional spy adventure during World War I.
• Mata Hari was mentioned in videogame Reverse:1999 (2023). In this game universe she shares biography and fate of her real world counterpart, although she was not human, but arcane creature - succubi. Her fictional sister, Nala Hari (Anjo Nala), one of the playable characters.
• Mata Hari, as Margarete Gertrude Zelle, is one of the playable characters in the 2001 JRPG Playstation 2 game Shadow Hearts.

• In 1931 Mata Hari, an American thoroughbred racehorse, was foaled. She twice won championship honors as the top filly in the sport. In 1943, when in foal to fellow champion Balladier, she produced Spy Song.
• In 1977, Bally Manufacturing released an electromechanical pinball machine named after Mata Hari,{{Cite web|url=https://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1557/ |title=Internet Pinball Database Entry on Mati Hari (Electro Mechanical) |website=ipdb.org |access-date=27 March 2021}} and a solid-state version in 1978.{{Cite web|url=https://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4501/ |title=Internet Pinball Database Entry on Mati Hari (Solid State) |website=ipdb.org |access-date=27 March 2021}}
• In February 2016, the Dutch National Ballet premiered a two-act ballet entitled Mata Hari, with Anna Tsygankova dancing the role of Mata Hari, choreography by Ted Brandsen and music by Tarik O'Regan.EuroArts/Warner Classics 0880242616289 (DVD) 0880242616241 (Blu-ray)
• In 2017, the opera Mata Hari by librettist Peter Peers and composer Matt Marks premiered at New York's Prototype Festival.{{Cite web |url=http://prototypefestival.org/archive/show/mata-hari/ |title=Prototype |website=prototypefestival.org |access-date=6 August 2018 |archive-date=7 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807001958/http://prototypefestival.org/archive/show/mata-hari/ |url-status=dead }} In August 2018, it was also produced by West Edge Opera, with Tina Mitchell reprising her starring role.{{Cite web |url=http://www.westedgeopera.org/matahari/ |title=Mata Hari |website=West Edge Opera |access-date=6 August 2018 |archive-date=7 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807001846/http://www.westedgeopera.org/matahari/ |url-status=dead }}
• In a 1940 The Three Stooges satire of Nazi Germany, You Nazty Spy!, Mata Hari is spoofed as "Mattie Herring," played by Lorna Gray. Another WWII-era parody, "Hatta Mari" (an anthropomorphic pigeon) appears in Plane Daffy, where she attempts to seduce Daffy Duck.

{{Portal|Biography|Netherlands|Theatre}}

• List of dancers
• Women in dance
• {{anl|Yoshiko Kawashima}} – sometimes known in fiction under the pseudonym "Eastern Mata Hari"
• {{anl|Bertha Trost}}
• {{anl|Amy Elizabeth Thorpe}}

Citations

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• Collas, Phillipe, (2008). Mata Hari, sa véritable Histoire. Paris: Plon 2003. {{ISBN|978-2-2591-9872-1}} (French)
• Coulson, Thomas. Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy. London: Hutchinson, 1930. {{OCLC|17969173}}
• Craig, Mary, W. (2017), A Tangled Web: Mata Hari Dancer, Courtesan, Spy. Stroud: The History Press, 2017. {{ISBN|978-0750968195}}
• Dumarcet, Lionel: L'affaire Mata-Hari. De Vecchi, Paris 2006, {{ISBN|2-7328-4870-0}} (French)
• Howe, Russel Warren: Mata-Hari. The true story. Editions de l'Archipel, Paris 2007, {{ISBN|978-2-84187-577-1}} (French)
• Huisman, Marijke. (1998), Mata Hari (1876–1917): de levende legende. Hilversum: Verloren. {{ISBN|90-6550-442-7}} (Dutch)
• Maucher, Ute, Pfeiffer, Gabi: Codewort: Seidenstrumpf, Die größten Spioninnen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. ars vivendi verlag, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-89716-999-9}} (German)
• Ostrovsky, Erika. (1978), Eye of Dawn: The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari. New York: Macmillan. {{ISBN|0025940309}} {{OCLC|3433352}}
• Samuels, Diane: The true life fiction of Mata Hari. Hern Books, London 2002, {{ISBN|1-85459-672-1}}
• Shipman, Pat. (2007), Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson {{ISBN|0-297-85074-1}}
• Waagenaar, Sam. (1965), Mata Hari. New York: Appleton-Century.
• Wheelwright, Julie. (1992). The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage. London: Collins and Brown. {{ISBN|1-85585-128-8}}
• Mauro Macedonio. (2017). Mata Hari, a life through images. Tricase: Youcanprint. {{ISBN|978-8892637818}}

{{Refend}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://www.matahari.nl/ Multi-language (nl, fr, de, en) website on Mata Hari]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061001180657/http://www.museum-security.org/00/110.html#2 Details of the disappearance of the corpse]
• [http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/matahari.htm "The Execution of Mata Hari, 1917," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005)]
• [http://donhollway.com/matahari/ "Mata Hari," from History Magazine. Complete text, images, video]

{{Authority control}}

Category:1876 births

Category:1917 deaths

Category:Civilians who were court-martialed

Category:Double agents

Category:Dutch courtesans

Category:Dutch female erotic dancers

Category:Dutch people executed abroad

Category:Dutch people of World War I

Category:Executed Dutch women

Category:Executed spies

Category:Female wartime spies

Category:People convicted of spying for Imperial Germany

Category:People executed by the French military by firing squad

Category:People from Leeuwarden

Category:Women in World War I

Category:World War I espionage

Category:World War I spies for France

Category:Dutch spies

Category:Paris in World War I

Category:20th-century Dutch women

Category:20th-century dancers