|
Life
Mata Hari was born in Leeuwarden, Holland; her father a Dutch businessman, her mother of Javanese descent. She married Campbell MacLeod, a Dutch army officer of Scottish descent, and they lived in the Dutch East Indies. She gave birth to two children: a son, Norman, and a daughter, Jeanne-Louise. Jeanne-Louise was born in May 1898 on the island of Java. Both children were poisoned on June 25, 1899, Norman fatally. The person responsible was never discovered, but was reported to be a lover of the children's Indonesian nurse. Around the turn of the 20th century, after a failed attempt to become a teacher, two children, and a divorce, she moved to Paris, where she performed as Lady MacLeod. She later posed as a princess from Java and became an exotic dancer, performing "Oriental-style" dances. Her stage name Mata Hari means "sun", "eye of the day" or "pupil of dawn" in Malay and Indonesian. She was also a courtesan who may have had affairs with many military officers and politicians. As a performer she claimed to be the daughter of a famous Indian monk, and that she had been taught sacred Indian dances since birth.
Zelle slipped into innumerable French and German beds, and became a pawn in international intrigue, although historians have never clarified the exact nature of Mata Hari's spying activities. In 1917 she was put on trial in France, accused of spying, as a double agent, for Germany and France and causing the deaths of thousands of soldiers in World War I. Her arrest in France was caused by the German military attaché in Spain who radioed back a message to Berlin naming Mata Hari as a German spy, known as H-21, in a code known by the Germans to have been broken by the French. Mata Hari's trial occurred at a time when the war was not going well for France, and for the French government it was very convenient to blame all of the military failures of the previous three years on her. She was found guilty and executed by firing squad on October 15, 1917. Mata Hari was probably a low-level agent for the French and the Germans, but there is no evidence that she ever produced any substantial intelligence for either side.
After her death her corpse was not claimed by any family members, and it was donated to the study of medicine. Her head was embalmed and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris; in 2000 archivists discovered that the head had disappeared, possibly as early as 1954 when the museum relocated. The museum reportedly also received the rest of Mata Hari's body in 1918, but the remains later vanished.
TOP
Quotes
"Harlot, yes. But traitoress? Never!" — attributed to Mata Hari, on trial.
TOP
Execution rumors
There are numerous rumours surrounding her execution. One well-known story is that during the execution the squad members had to be blindfolded so as not to succumb to her charms. However, one would wonder how they managed to shoot her accurately if that was true. Another rumour claims she blew a kiss to her killers before the firing began. A third tale claims that not only did she fling a kiss to her killers, she flung open her long coat and died exposing her naked body.
A final, and more complicated rumour is the most unlikely and yet the most persistent. Mata Hari was said to be unusually composed at the execution, accepting a shot of rum but refusing to be blindfolded or bound to a tree. This was later explained by the dubious tale of a young man named Pierre de Morrisac arranging to bribe the firing squad into loading their guns with blanks. The execution would be faked. However, the plot was a failure, and the guns were loaded properly. The tale is highly unlikely to be true, and it bears a suspicious resemblance to Puccini's popular opera, Tosca.
TOP
Fictional work inspired by Mata Hari
A highly fictionalized film of her final days, "Mata Hari", was released in 1931 and starred Greta Garbo in the leading role. The film attempts to interweave Mata Hari's spying with a love story involving her and a Russian pilot.
A fictionalized version of Margarete Zelle appears as a character in the video game Shadow Hearts, joining the hero's party during a botched terrorist attack in Fengtian in 1913. However, her character is tweaked to be a James Bond-styled super-spy loyal to the French government, under the code-name "Malkovich".
There's also a mention in the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. During a particular scene with Naked Snake and EVA, Snake makes a crack about her being 'a regular Mata Hari'.
Another fictionalized version of Mata Hari named Nancy Makuhari appears in the anime series Read or Die and R.O.D the TV. In it, she is a secret agent for the British government, born with the super power of phasing through objects.
Mata Bond, the illegitimate daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond, was a major character in Casino Royale (1967 film), a spoof on the popular 007 movie series based on the spy novels of Ian Fleming.
She appears in one episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles entitled "Paris, October 1916" and is part of the "Demons of Deceit" movie. Needless to say, she and Indiana have a torrid love affair.
TOP
External links
TOP
|
Pictures