Mata Hari: Dancer and Spy

In 1917, the First World War was at its worst. Huge battles were fought and millions of men had died; and still no-one knew who would win. In October that year in Paris, a Dutch woman, who worked as a dancer stood in a Paris courtroom, accused of spying for France's enemy, Germany. There were rumours that she was also a French spy and so a 'double agent'. If found guilty, the French would have her shot. But, who was this mysterious woman?

The dancer and, perhaps, spy, Mata Hari, was born Margaretha Zelle in Holland on 7th August, 1876. Her father was a shop owner and, later, a successful businessman. Margaretha was sent to expensive schools and bought the best toys and clothes. However, in 1889, when she was 13, her father went out of business and lost all his money. Her parents argued and then divorced, and the young Margaretha went to live with a family friend.

She was not happy in her new home. At the age of 18, she moved to an uncle's house but, soon after this, she answered an advert in the newspaper from a captain in the Dutch Colonial Army. This Captain, Rudolf MacLeod, wanted a wife to take back to his life in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Margaretha saw a way to escape her life in Holland and live in comfort, as she used to when she was younger. Despite the twenty-year age difference, she married Captain MacLeod and went with him to the East Indies. The luxury and upper-class life she wanted so much was waiting for her there; but happiness was not.

On arrival, Margaretha found the status she wanted through her new husband's aristocratic background. Also, he had enough money to keep her in the lifestyle she loved. But, the captain was an alcoholic who treated her badly when he began to feel that he was not being promoted at work. He thought her lower social background was keeping him back. Perhaps, he was right.

Nonetheless, they had two children; a boy in 1897 and a girl the following year. This did not make their marriage any better. Captain MacLeod had an Indonesian girlfriend, probably from before he married Margaretha. She had at least one affair. At one time, she left MacLeod for another officer and lived with this man for several months. It was at this time that she began to take an interest in the dancing styles of the Indonesians. This kind of dancing was to be her future and, around this time, Maragaretha took the stage name 'Mata Hari', meaning 'eye of the day' or, in other words, 'the sun'.

Mata Hari went back to her husband but the marriage was no happier and she kept herself busy by studying the local culture and its dancing as much as she could. Sadness after sadness came when, in 1899, both of the MacLeod's children became seriously ill. The baby girl survived, but the little boy died. It is said that the illness was caused by syphilis that the children had caught from both parents. But, the family always believed the children had been poisoned, perhaps by one of the servants.

Soon, Mata Hari went back to Holland with her husband and daughter but, not long after this, Rudolf and Mata Hari divorced. Jeanne, the daughter, lived with her mother at first but was then given to her father. Freed from any family ties, Mata Hari went to Paris to see if she could make her dream of being a famous dancer become a reality. Little by little, she became well known for Indonesian dancing and she told people that she was Indonesian. Her hair and eyes were naturally very dark and this helped to make her lie credible.

Some said her dancing was art but others thought and said it was just an excuse for her to take her clothes off in front of a lot of rich and powerful men. Politicians, generals and millionaires. After seeing her dance, many of these men (single or married) would ask her for a date. Usually, Mata Hari accepted and, when she did, the rich man would take her to the best restaurants and give her diamonds or expensive clothes as presents. And she did not disappoint them.

In this way, she travelled all over Europe and got to know some of the most important men on the continent. When the war started in 1914, Mata Hari could still travel freely because her country, Holland, was not in the war and so people with Dutch passports could go where they liked. And Mata Hari went everywhere. It seems she got involved in the dangerous world of wartime spying. With her international connections and her freedom to travel with her work, she was perfect for the job. She was almost certainly working for the French. Also, it is possible that she was in the pay of the British. This was not a great problem because the British and the French were on the same side in the war.

However, when suspicions and rumours began that she was working for the Germans as well, the British and French started to watch her very, very closely. They never really found sure evidence of her double game but there were so many little things that were hard to explain (like the invisible ink found in her bag), so the French arrested her on 13th February, 1917.

She was accused of spying for the Germans and taken to court. Already, there was talk that the French were using her to blame for the failed attacks of 1916 in which so many French and British soldiers had died. The plans made by the generals for these attacks were unintelligent but, now because of Mata Hari, they had an excuse. Her spying, not their plans, had cost all those soldiers' lives.

The evidence was confusing but the French court found her guilty and sentenced her to death. On 15th October, 1917, she was taken out and shot by the French army. A British journalist at the execution described how Mata Hari did not want her hands tied and refused to cover her eyes. She looked death in the face. When she was shot, she sank to her knees slowly and then to the ground. A soldier came forward and shot her once in the head to make sure she was dead. She was 41.

Was Mata Hari spying for the Germans? No-one is sure. It is possible that she was but that she did not see how serious it was. She may have seen her French, British or German spymasters the way she saw her lovers: to be played with and lied to, and, of course, taking money from all of them. And though the money was always useful, she probably enjoyed the exciting life of a spy just as much. In the end, this game killed her but she died as she had lived, famous and full of mystery. She certainly kept her pride at the moment of her death.

And, even today, she leaves a little mystery behind her. After the execution, her body was not collected by any family or friends. Following French practice at the time, it was given to a hospital for medical experiments. Then, just the head was sent to a museum but, in the year 2000, museum workers discovered that the head had disappeared some time after 1954.

In 2017, the French court files will be opened, one hundred years after Mata Hari's death. This may finally show if Mata Hari was a German spy or not.