About Mata Hari:
Known for: executed in 1917 in Vincennes, France, by a firing squad, after conviction for spying for the Germans in World War I
Dates: August 7, 1876 - October 15, 1917
Occupation: exotic dancer
Also known as: Margaretha Geertruida Macleod, Margaretha Geertruide Zelle
Mata Hari Biography:
Born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, as Margraetha Geertruida Zelle, the woman known to history as Mata Hari began life in quite ordinary circumstances. her father, a hatter, was a wealthy businessman, and she prepared for a career as a teacher.
In 1895 she married a Dutch army captain of Scottish ancestry, Rudolph Macleod. She was eighteen, he was forty. They lived in Amsterdam for three years and had two children. In 1897 the Macleods moved to Java, and lived there until 1902. After returning from the East Indies, the Macleods divorced.
Margaretha moved to Paris in 1903 and began to support herself as an exotic dancer. First she used the name Lady Macleod, then changed it to Mata Hari, Malay for "Eye of the Dawn" or "Eye of the Day." Linking her dancing to Hindu religion, she danced in a museum of Asian art that resembled a temple.
Mata Hari and her erotic dancing were a hit, first in Paris, and then in other European cities where she toured. With fame came many lovers, including government officials and military officers.
How (and whether) she moved to espionage is hazy. By 1905 or 1907, she seems to have been passing information to the Germans. During World War I, Mata Hari traveled as a dancer between The Hague and Paris. In occupied Belgium, she may have used her contacts to pick up secrets and pass them along to the French. The French noticed that Mata Hari still met with German military officers and other officials. They became suspicious and arrested Mata Hari on February 13, 1917, on charges of spying.
Mata Hari claimed that she was working as a double agent for the Germans and the French, and that when she agreed to work for the French, she failed to disclose her previous association with the Germans.
The French tried Mata Hari in a military court and sentenced her to die by firing squad. She was executed five months after her arrest.
Today, it is widely believed that the French allegations were considerably exaggerated.
