Biography of Margareta Gertrude Zelle (Mata Hari). The spy who was loved. The Real Story of Mata Hari Movies and Books
(1917-10-15 ) […] (41 years old)Many documentary and fiction books, films and works of other genres are dedicated to the fate of Mata Hari.
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✪ Mata Hari - psychotype and physiognomy
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Youth
Indonesia
On July 11, 1895, in Amsterdam, 18 years old, Margareta married 39-year-old Captain Rudolph McLeod (March 1, 1856 - January 9, 1928), a Dutchman of Scottish descent, whom she met on an ad. They moved to the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia), where they had two children: son Norman-John (January 30, 1897 - June 27, 1899) and daughter Jeanne-Louise (Non) (May 2, 1898 - August 10 1919).
The marriage was a complete disappointment for both. Rudolph was an alcoholic; in addition, he took out all his frustrations and dissatisfaction with life on his wife, who was half his age and whom he accused of not being promoted. He also openly kept mistresses. Frustrated, Margareta left him, temporarily moving in with Van Rheedes, another Dutch officer. For many months she intensively studied Indonesian traditions, in particular through her work in a local dance group. In she first mentioned her artistic pseudonym - Mata Hari, which in Malay means "sun" ("Mata" - eye, "Hari" - day, literally - "eye of the day") in one of the letters to relatives in Holland.
After persistent persuasion by Rudolph, Margareta returned to him, although his aggressive behavior did not change. She was still trying to forget herself, studying the local culture.
Their son Norman died in 1899, probably from complications of syphilis from his parents, although the family claimed he was poisoned by a servant. Some sources claim that Rudolph McLeod offended and punished the husband of the servant who worked for them, in response, the servant's husband ordered his wife to poison the children of Rudolph and Margaret. The maid obeyed her husband by poisoning the baby's food. This was not difficult for her, since she had access to the entire house, including the kitchen and food. The boy did not die immediately, in terrible agony, but the girl survived. Some claimed that it was a miracle, others referred to strong immunity, but it is still unclear how she could survive if both children ate the same poisoned food.
The couple divorced in 1903, after returning to Holland, and Rudolph took away from his wife the right to raise a daughter, who would die at the age of 21 (most likely also from complications of syphilis).
Dancer
Finding herself in poverty, Margareta Zelle went to earn a living in Paris. She first performed as a circus rider under the name "Lady Gresh McLeod". Since 1905, she began her resounding fame as a dancer of the "oriental style", performing under the pseudonym Mata Hari. Some of her dances were something close to a modern striptease, then still unusual for the Western audience: at the end of the number (performed in front of a narrow circle of connoisseurs on a stage strewn with rose petals) the dancer remained almost completely naked (according to legend, “it was so pleasing to Shiva”) ... Mata Hari herself claimed to reproduce the real sacred dances of the East, allegedly familiar to her from childhood, and also mystified her interlocutors with various other fables of a romantic nature. So, the dancer claimed that she was an exotic princess (or the daughter of King Edward VII and an Indian princess), that she had a horse that allowed only her mistress to ride on her, that she was brought up in the East in a monastery, etc.
At the beginning of the 20th century, during a period of heightened interest in the East, ballet (the career of Isadora Duncan can be cited as an example) and eroticism, Mata Hari had great success in Paris, and then in other European capitals.
Mata Hari was also a successful courtesan and had connections with a number of high-ranking military officials, politicians and other influential figures in many countries, including France and Germany. Despite the expensive gifts she received from her lovers, Mata Hari experienced financial difficulties and borrowed money many times. Also her passion was card game, for which, perhaps, her money went.
Double agent
Before her execution, while Mata Hari was in custody, her lawyer tried to free her and drop all charges. An appeal was filed - to no avail. Then the lawyer filed a petition for clemency to the president, but R. Poincaré also remained relentless. The death sentence remained in effect. In the cell where she spent last days her life, the lawyer suggested that she tell the authorities that she was pregnant, thereby delaying her death hour, but Mata Hari refused to lie. That morning, the guards came for her, asked to get dressed - the woman was outraged that they would execute her in the morning, without feeding her breakfast. While she was preparing for execution, the coffin for her body had already been delivered to the building.
The execution was carried out on October 15, 1917 at a military training ground in Vincennes. After the execution, a certain officer approached the body of the shot and fired a revolver in the back of the head to be sure.
Mata Hari's body was not claimed by any of her relatives, so it was transferred to the anatomical theater. Her head was embalmed and preserved at the Musée des Anatomy in Paris. However, in 2000, archivists discovered that the head had disappeared; according to experts, the loss could have occurred as early as 1954, when the museum moved. Reports from 1918 indicate that the museum received the rest of Mata Hari's body as well, but no records of their exact location have survived.
Performance evaluation
Most historians believe that the harm from the acts of Mata Hari (that is, her effectiveness as a scout) was greatly exaggerated - hardly the information she actually got (if any) was of serious value for one side or the other.
Lieutenant Colonel of British and Dutch counterintelligence Orest Pinto believes that “Mata Hari has certainly won resounding fame. In the eyes of the public, she became the personification of a charming spy woman. But Mata Hari was a stupid, expansive creature. If she had not been executed, she would not have been known as a martyr and no one would have even heard of her. " .
In culture and art
Template: Painting The role of a high society spy, played by her with complete fearlessness and leading to a tragic death, fit into the "cinematic" biography of an exotic dancer and "femme fatale" she was creating; this provided Mata Hari with much more fame than others, more effective intelligence officers XX century.
- Already in 1920, the film "Mata Hari" was shot about her with Asta Nielsen in the title role, and later several remakes were released.
- In 1982, the German group Dschinghis Khan dedicated a song to her (album "Helden, schurken und der dudelmoser").
- In 1982, the London Lyric Theater, Hammersmith premiered the musical "Mata Hari" by Lane Lovich, Chris Judge Smith and Les Chappell.
- In 2009, the director Yevgeny Ginzburg staged the musical "Mata Hari" to the music of A. Kiselev (libretto by A. Kiselev, A. Vulykh), the main roles in which were performed by T. Dolnikova, V. Lanskaya, N. Gromushkina, O. Akulich, E. Vitorgan and singer Alexander Fadeev.
- In 2010, the musical "Love and Espionage" to the music of M. Dunaevsky, staged by E. Gremina's play "Eyes of the Day" with Larisa Dolina and Dmitry Kharatyan in the lead roles, was launched in Moscow.
- On September 16, 2010 in Moscow, on the big stage of the Theater of the Moon (artistic director Sergei Borisovich Prokhanov), the premiere of the play Mata Hari: “the eyes of the day” (directed by Daria Popova) took place.
- The computer game “Secret Missions. Mata Hari and the Kaiser's Submarines.
- Song " Mata hari mambo"Was performed in Polish by the famous pop singer of the 60s-80s of the XX century Anna Herman.
- In the 8th episode of the 2nd season of the TV series "Vault 13", Mata Hari's stockings were an artifact that has the ability to seduce men who touched them.
- Mentioned in the novel "It's Only Time" by D. H. Chase.
In literature
- Mark Aldanov in 1932 he published the essay "Mata Hari"
- Leila Vertenbaker... The Life and Death of Mata Hari, novel. - Moscow, Pressa publishing house, 1992, circulation of 100,000 copies, translation from English. V. V. Kuznetsova
- Elena Gremina... Play "Eyes of the Day"
- Paulo Coelho . Mata Hari. Spy - M .: AST, 2016 .-- ISBN 978-5-17-099182-2
- Mata Hari is one of the heroes of the books "Hunters" and "Hunters-2" of the literary project "Ethnogenesis" publishing houses "Popular Literature" and "
The Parisian, born in Holland, lived in Indonesia and conquered the world with exotic dances, is still considered the most famous spy of all time. One has only to say "Mata Hari", and it immediately becomes clear that it comes about a cool cocktail of espionage, eroticism and exoticism. Although, in reality, Mata Hari has never been a serious scout. She was used as one of the many sources of information - just like most courtesans of that time, who could extract some kind of secret information from their lovers in bed.
At the trial of the spy dancer, the public prosecutor André Morne called her "the greatest spy of our century" and said that "the harm that this woman has done is indescribable." But most likely, such a fast and tough, if not cruel, criminal process was associated with one circumstance: among those who shared secret information with the tender Mata Hari, there were too many high-ranking French officials.
On the birthday of this amazing woman, MIR 24 introduces its readers to ten of the most remarkable facts from the life of the legendary spy.
Mata Hari means "Sun"
The real name of the "greatest spy" is Margareta Gertrude Zelle, and she was born in the Netherlands, in Leeuwarden. The future celebrity took the pseudonym Mata Hari for herself when she lived on the island of Java, which was then still a Dutch possession. In Malay, these two words mean "Sun": "mata" translates as "eye", "hari" as "day", so literally Margareta called herself "Eye of the Day". This pseudonym was first mentioned in a letter from Margareta to relatives in Holland.
Born into a wealthy family
Margareta was the only daughter in a family where, besides her, there were three other sons. Until the age of thirteen, she, like the rest of the children, was brought up in the best schools: her father Adam Zelle invested money in oil industry... However, this did not last long: when Margareta was 13 years old, her father went bankrupt, two years later divorced her mother, and her daughter came under the care of relatives. Five years later, she escaped from them to marry a Dutch army captain, who was twice her age, and went with him to Indonesia.
Photo: FA Bobo / PIXSELL / PA Images / TASS
Didn't become a model due to small breasts
An early marriage turned out to be unsuccessful, and in 1902 Margaret flees from her husband to Paris: as she herself said, probably because “all wives who have fled from their husbands are drawn to Paris”. Once in a strange city, she was forced to look for any job. Margaret also auditioned for the role of a model for Parisian artists, but unsuccessfully. According to the canons of painting that reigned at that time, she had a flaw: she had a too small, barely noticeable chest, which did not suit the masters of the brush and canvas.
Didn't know how to dance
Former spouse obtained a divorce from Mata Hari only under threat of blackmail: he managed to get one of the naughty photographs of the ex-wife, in which she posed nude, and he promised to present it in a Dutch court. Later, he wondered how Margareta managed to become a dancer. He said more than once, including to journalists, that his ex-wife did not know how to dance at all, and also suffered from flat feet, which at that time was considered a significant obstacle to dancing. Mata Hari herself was intriguing: she talked about her acquaintance with oriental dances either in a Hindu monastery or in the royal family of the East. In fact, she learned the basic movements while living in Java and working part-time in a local dance troupe.
Didn't appear nude
More precisely, she almost never appeared before the public without clothes. At the first, not crowded performances, held in private houses and apartments, the dancer really ended her performance by remaining “dressed” only in bracelets and necklaces. But when she began performing in front of a wide audience, for example, on the stage of the Olympia Theater, she used thin flesh-colored jersey, which she wore under exotic outfits and which at a distance created the illusion of completely naked female body... Such jersey can be seen in one of the surviving photographs of Mata Hari.
She is credited with over 100 lovers
After the death of the dancer, her biographers began to count the rich and high-ranking, as well as even the poorer, but more famous lovers of Mata Hari. She herself did not hide that she lives mainly at the expense of her boyfriends, and at the same time she never dispelled many rumors on this topic that accompanied her life in Paris. Moreover, Mata Hari diligently created more and more new "biographies" for herself, which were supposed to stir up interest in her and her dances. By the way, among those who fell into the orbit of Margareta's love interests was the Russian pilot Captain Vadim Maslov: he is often called “the last true love” of Mata Hari, although for the officer himself it seemed to be just a passing affair.
Was scattering money, but not rich
Indeed, despite the fact that exotic dances brought her a lot of income, and rich lovers did not spare money for the unique Mata Hari, she did not save up capital. They did not add to her wealth and money that the German intelligence paid her, which recruited the dancer even before the start of the First World War. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why many expensive purchases Mata Hari made on credit, and from time to time she turned to her friends with requests to lend money. Biographers believe that all funds were spent on the card game: the spy became addicted to her in Paris, but luck rarely smiled at her.
Photo: Wikipedia
The spy's attorney was one of her fans
The main defender of Mata Hari during the investigation and the criminal trial was 75-year-old Edouard Clune, a well-known French lawyer. They had known each other since 1905, and apparently, their love affair began at the same time. It was Klyune who, shortly before the death sentence of his client was pronounced, invited her to say that she was pregnant, and was even ready to declare his paternity. But Mata Hari refused this move, which would have allowed her to delay the execution.
After the death of Mata Hari again went to the theater
Mata Hari was shot on October 15, 1917 at the Vincennes training ground, in the eastern suburbs of Paris. According to legend, she, being already tied, according to the French tradition, to the mortal pillar, sent a kiss to the twelve soldiers standing in front of her with rifles at the ready, after which some of them could not even open fire. It is not known exactly whether this was so - but it is known that none of the relatives asked to give him the body of the executed. As a result, Mata Hari became ... an exhibit of the anatomical theater, and her embalmed head was kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. True, over time, it disappeared from there: in 2000, it was no longer found there and it was considered that the unique exhibit disappeared in 1954 when the museum moved.
The details of her criminal case are still classified.
During the process itself, and also shortly after it, only a few details of the criminal case of Mata Hari were leaked to the press. It is known that the French counterintelligence became interested in it back in 1916 and that at the same time Margareta expressed a desire to become a double agent. But soon in France they learned that she was still working for the Germans, and this became known from the intercepted radiogram - according to one version, the interception was specially organized by the Germans in order to get rid of the already useless spy. But the main details of the investigation and the process remain classified. And most likely, because to this day, it is unprofitable for Paris to compromise many historical figures, high-ranking officials and the military who went through the boudoir of the "greatest spy of the twentieth century."
Even Scotland Yard, which usually takes four days of interrogation to find out all the secrets of the suspects, could not get an answer to the question, who was she after all - a spy or a courtesan dancer? We will tell you why this beautiful Dutch woman went down in history as one of the most mysterious women of the 20th century, and why her personal story was worthy of the series.
Shot from the TV series "Mata Hari" (2016)1. She made up a story for herself.
The only daughter of four children of the Dutch haberdasher Adam Zelle Margareta Zelle grew like an orchid among buttercups: a wealthy father spoiled her incredibly, but, alas, only until, after several unsuccessful financial frauds, he went bankrupt. The parents separated, the mother soon died, and the future Mata Hari was brought up by relatives.
When, at the age of 16, a girl was caught flirting with the 51-year-old director of an educational institution where she received the profession of a teacher kindergarten, the outraged father took her home. But the free-lover did not like it: at first she fled to other relatives in The Hague, and from there she went to Amsterdam with a surprisingly chaste and prudent goal. Margaretha responded to the announcement of the 39-year-old Dutchman of Scottish descent, Captain Rudolph McLeod. He wrote that he was going home on vacation and wanted to meet a girl for love and family. They got married and moved to Indonesia, on the island of Java.
“Yes, he could have been my father ─ by age at that time ... But when I see a handsome young man, my heart starts beating faster. I am very temperamental, and I always wanted to flutter like a butterfly in the sun, ”said Mata Hari.
In Indonesia, Margareta got acquainted with the national dance. In fact, the traditional display of love and worship for Devi Sri, the goddess of fertility, has undergone significant changes since ancient times. The dancers, dressed in seductive costumes and magnificent headdresses, after the dance, chose a partner for themselves from the hall and retired with him to the chambers for the whole night (which, of course, was generously rewarded to those invited). Of course, such erotically charged acts, although they began with simple dances, could not but have a powerful effect on the still puritanical consciousness of a young European woman (even though she had already given birth to two children by this time).
Family life was not happy: Rudolph was devoured by vices - drunkenness, gambling, debauchery, jealousy. The latter, by the way, was not entirely groundless (“The young lieutenants persecuted me, and it was difficult to behave in a way that would not give my husband any reason to doubt”). However, she did not justify either the assault that McLeod was known for, or the venereal diseases that he regularly “supplied” the family with (McLeod's son Norman-John died of syphilis, although the family tried to spread the information that the child had been poisoned).
The couple went their separate ways. Rudolph arranged custody of his daughter Jeanne-Louise. And Margareta left for Paris in order, by her own admission, to start life anew (“I thought all women who leave their husbands go to Paris”). She took away from Indonesia new biography(the legend said about the early death of an Indian mother and life-teaching in Buddhist temples) and a new name (translated from Malay "Mata Hari" means "sun").
2. She "made friends" the West with the East with the help of striptease
The beginning of the XX century. Paris was at its peak: cultural, but not moral. It was fashionable not to hide the scandalous lifestyle, but to flaunt it. While the mighty marched through the Champs Elysees and the Seine embankments, walking their mistresses, the lonely unemployed woman had little choice: go to their house in the kitchen or to bed.
“I took the train to Paris with no money and no wardrobe. If I could survive, it was only because of my female attractiveness, ”she recalled.
At first, Margareta was looking for work as a model for an artist, but her figure was not appreciated. Then, as an experienced rider, she taught horseback riding, then - performed in the circus. Tormented by need and obsessed with a passion for an easy life, she decides to return to dancing. The "oriental" debut took place in 1905: in the fashionable salon of Mrs. Kireevskaya in an amazing costume (transparent veils, metal chains, sparkling fake jewelry - the design belonged to her imagination) Mata Hari came out to the guests. However, much more of the audience - mainly the male part - liked the finale: the dancer with an elegant movement threw off all the tricky parts of the costume, remaining negligee. Lady McLeod was named Venus the next day by reviewers, her career was on. Mata Hari became a sensation in Paris.
3. Her real crime was easy behavior.
Rudolph filed for divorce, using half-naked photos as evidence of Mata Hari's lecherous behavior and her likely harmful influence on the girl. In fact, the adventures of Margareta were nothing more than a search for her father's affection that was not received in childhood. It's just that for her personally, in adulthood, sex became the equivalent of loss - and she famously went all out.
Tall, mobile, with glowing eyes and dark skin, a lively mind and a quick original answer to every question, she fascinated and remained for a long time in the memory of those who knew her, and Indonesian dances opened the doors for her to the richest salons and in her bed. turned out to be the most influential persons. At the same time, she spread easily about her extensive list of lovers. The roll call of Mata Hari's lovers can be called a personification of the turn of the century: composers Massenet and Puccini, financier Baron Henri de Rothschild, chocolatier Gaston Meunier, French ambassadors in Japan, the Netherlands and the USA, banker Felix Xavier Russo ... Having exhausted French resources, Mata Hari switched to Spain, Italy , Russia, Austria and even Germany ... So, for example, in Berlin, a very wealthy officer Alfred Kipert - being, by the way, married - gave her 300,000 gold marks as a parting gift (by today's standards, this is just over $ 4 million).
4. She loved a beautiful life.
At the beginning of 1914, Mata Hari was in Berlin and planned to stay there for another six months: a contract was signed with the capital's Metropol (no nudity, only art numbers). The Germans seized her at one point, confiscating her furs and jewelry... Accepting the offer to “speak cordially with some French officers,” she wanted nothing more than to return the seized property back (and receive another 20,000 francs from above). But the turning point, when she became an agent of N-21, tragically changed the vector of her life.
“I love officers. I have loved them all my life. I would rather be the mistress of a poor officer than a rich banker. It is my greatest pleasure to sleep with them without thinking about money, ”Mata Hari confided. Ultimately, such love turned against her. In 1916, the French special services announced that they had received information about her work for Germany, re-"recruited" for themselves and ... were convinced that they were right. During her next return to Paris (this was February 13, 1917) she was arrested. The new Russian TV series Mata Hari, a joint brainchild of Channel One and the international company Star Media, tells in detail about the events of this period in the life of the great Mata Hari.
Biography
Mana Hahi is an exotic dancer and courtesan of Frisian origin, a national of the Netherlands. In the first decade of the 20th century, she became widely known in Europe as an "oriental style" dancer. During the First World War, she was engaged in espionage activities in favor of Germany. Shot by a French court verdict for espionage in favor of the enemy in wartime.
Many documentary and fiction books, films and works of other genres are dedicated to the fate of Mata Hari.
Youth
Margareta was born in Leeuwarden (Netherlands) and was the only daughter and the second child of four children of Adam Zelle (Dutch. Adam Zelle, October 2, 1840 - March 13, 1910) and Antje van der Meulen (Netherlands. Antje van der Meulen, April 21, 1842 - May 9, 1891). Adam was the owner of a hat shop. In addition, he made successful investments in the oil industry and became wealthy enough not to skimp on children. Thus, until the age of thirteen, Margareta attended only upper-class schools. However, in 1889, Adam went bankrupt and soon divorced his wife. Margareta's mother died in 1891. The family was destroyed. The father sent Margaret to her godfather in the town of Snack. She then continued her studies in Leiden, pursuing the profession of a kindergarten teacher, but when the school director began to openly flirt with her, her insulted godfather took Margaret away from this school. After several months, she fled to her uncle in The Hague.
Indonesia
On July 11, 1895, 18 years old, Margareta married in Amsterdam at the announcement of the 39-year-old captain Rudolf McLeod (March 1, 1856 - January 9, 1928), a Dutchman of Scottish descent. They moved to the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia), and they had two children: a son Norman-John (January 30, 1897 - June 27, 1899) and a daughter Jeanne-Louise (Non) (May 2, 1898 - August 10 1919).
The marriage was a complete disappointment for both. Rudolph was an alcoholic; in addition, he took out all his frustrations and dissatisfaction with life on his wife, who was half his age and whom he accused of not being promoted. He also openly kept mistresses. Frustrated, Margareta left him, temporarily moving in with Van Rheedes, another Dutch officer. For many months, she intensively studied Indonesian traditions, in particular through her work in a local dance group. In 1897, she first mentioned her artistic pseudonym - Mata Hari, which in Malay means "sun" ("Mata" - eye, "Hari" - day, literally - "eye of the day") in one of the letters to relatives in Holland.
After persistent persuasion by Rudolph, Margareta returned to him, although his aggressive behavior did not change. She was still trying to forget herself, studying the local culture.
Their son Norman died in 1899, probably from complications of syphilis from his parents, although the family claimed he was poisoned by a servant. Some sources claim that Rudolph McLeod offended and punished the husband of the servant who served them, in response, the servant's husband ordered his wife to poison the children of Rudolph and Margaret. The maid listened to her husband by poisoning the children's food. This was not difficult for her, because she moved around the house of this family without barriers, was admitted to the kitchen and food. The boy died in agony that lasted a long time, but the girl survived. Some argued that this was a miracle, some referred to strong immunity, but it is still not clear how she could survive if the children were fed the same and the poison was for two children.
The couple divorced in 1903 after moving back to Holland. Rudolph took away from his wife the right to raise a daughter (who died at the age of 21, most likely also from complications of syphilis).
Dancer
Finding herself in poverty, Margareta Zelle went to earn a living in Paris. She first performed as a circus rider under the name "Lady Gresh McLeod". Since 1905, she began her resounding fame as a dancer of the "oriental style", performing under the pseudonym Mata Hari. Some of her dances were something close to modern striptease, then still unusual for the Western audience: at the end of the number (performed in front of a narrow circle of connoisseurs on a stage strewn with rose petals), the dancer remained almost completely naked (according to legend, “it was so pleasing to Shiva”) ... Mata Hari herself claimed to reproduce the real sacred dances of the East, allegedly familiar to her from childhood, and also mystified her interlocutors with various other fables of a romantic nature. So, the dancer claimed that she was an exotic princess (or the daughter of King Edward VII and an Indian princess), that she had a horse that allowed only her mistress to ride on her, that she was brought up in the East in a monastery, etc.
At the beginning of the 20th century, during a period of heightened interest in the East, ballet (the career of Isadora Duncan can be cited as an example) and eroticism, Mata Hari had great success in Paris, and then in other European capitals.
Mata Hari was also a successful courtesan and had connections with a number of high-ranking military officials, politicians and other influential figures in many countries, including France and Germany. Despite the expensive gifts she received from her lovers, Mata Hari experienced financial difficulties and borrowed money many times. She also had a passion for the card game, which may have spent her money on it.
Double agent
During the First World War, the Netherlands remained neutral, and as a Dutch citizen, Margareta Zelle could travel from France to her homeland and back. The countries were divided by a front line, and the Mata Hari road ran through Spain (where German residency was active) and Great Britain; its movements attracted the attention of the Allied counterintelligence.
Apparently, Mata Hari was a German spy long before the war, the exact reasons and circumstances of her recruitment are still unknown. In 1916, the French counterintelligence service received the first indications of its involvement in work for Germany. Upon learning of this, Mata Hari herself appeared in the French special services and offered her services to them, accidentally mentioning, among other things, the name of one of her lovers, who was well known to her interlocutors as a German recruiting agent. As a result, the French sent her early next year on a minor mission to Madrid, and the suspicions of espionage were finally confirmed: the radio exchange of the German agent in Madrid with the center was intercepted, where he indicated that the agent H-21, recruited by the French, arrived in Spain and received from the German residency, an instruction to return to Paris (there is a possibility that the radio interception was deliberately declassified by the German side in order to get rid of the double agent, giving him over to the enemy).
Arrest and execution
On February 13, 1917, Mata Hari, immediately after returning to Paris, was arrested by French intelligence and accused of spying for the enemy in wartime.
Her trial was held behind closed doors. She was charged with passing on to the enemy information that led to the death of several divisions of soldiers (the court materials themselves are still classified, but some information has been leaked to the press). The next day, Dutch citizen Margareta Zelle was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Before her execution, while Mata Hari was in custody, her lawyer tried to free her and drop all charges. An appeal was filed - to no avail. Then the lawyer filed a petition for clemency to the president, but R. Poincaré also remained relentless. The death sentence remained in effect. In the cell where she spent the last days of her life, the lawyer suggested that she tell the authorities that she was pregnant, thereby postponing her death hour, but Mata Hari refused to lie. That morning, the guards came for her, asked to get dressed - the woman was outraged that they would execute her in the morning, without feeding her breakfast. While she was preparing for execution, the coffin for her body had already been delivered to the building.
The shooting took place at a military training ground in Vincennes on October 15, 1917. After the execution, a certain officer approached the body of the shot and fired a revolver in the back of the head to be sure.
Mata Hari's body was not claimed by any of her relatives, so it was transferred to the anatomical theater. Her head was embalmed and preserved at the Musée des Anatomy in Paris. However, in 2000, archivists discovered that the head had disappeared; according to experts, the loss could have occurred as early as 1954, when the museum moved. Reports from 1918 indicate that the museum also received the rest of Mata Hari's remains, but there are no reports of their exact location.
Performance evaluation
Most historians believe that the harm from the deeds of Mata Hari (that is, her effectiveness as a scout) was greatly exaggerated - hardly the information she actually got (if any) was of serious value for one side or the other.
Orest Pinto, Lieutenant Colonel of British and Dutch counterintelligence, believes that “Mata Hari has certainly won great fame. In the eyes of the public, she became the personification of a charming spy woman. But Mata Hari was a stupid, expansive creature. If she had not been executed, she would not have been known as a martyr and no one would have even heard of her. "
Historian EB Chernyak focused on Mata Hari's connections with representatives of the French military and political elite, the danger of publicity of which could affect her death sentence.
In culture and art
The role of a high society spy, played by her with complete fearlessness and leading to a tragic death, fit into the "cinematic" biography of an exotic dancer and "femme fatale" she was creating; this made Mata Hari much more famous than other, more effective intelligence agents of the 20th century.
Already in 1920, the film "Mata Hari" was shot about her with Asta Nielsen in the title role, and later several remakes were released.
In 1982 the German group Dschinghis Khan dedicated a song to her (the album "Helden, schurken und der dudelmoser").
In 1982, the London Lyric Theater, Hammersmith premiered the musical Mata Hari by Lane Lowitch, Chris Judge Smith and Les Chappell.
In 2009, the director Yevgeny Ginzburg staged the musical "Mata Hari" to the music of A. Kiselev (libretto by A. Kiselev, A. Vulykh), the main roles in which were performed by T. Dolnikova, V. Lanskaya, N. Gromushkina, O. Akulich, E. Vitorgan and singer Alexander Fadeev.
In 2010, the musical "Love and Espionage" to the music of M. Dunaevsky, staged by E. Gremina's play "Eyes of the Day" with Larisa Dolina and Dmitry Kharatyan in the lead roles, was launched in Moscow.
On September 16, 2010 in Moscow, on the big stage of the Theater of the Moon (artistic director Sergei Borisovich Prokhanov), the premiere of the play Mata Hari: “the eyes of the day” (directed by Daria Popova) took place.
Released computer game“Secret missions. Mata Hari and the Kaiser's Submarines.
The song "Mata Hari Mambo" was performed in Polish by the famous pop singer of the 60s-80s of the XX century Anna Herman.
In the 8th episode of the 2nd season of the TV series "Vault 13", Mata Hari's stockings were an artifact that has the ability to seduce men who touched them.
Mentioned in the novel "It's Only Time" by D. H. Chase.
In literature
Mark Aldanov in 1932 published the essay "Mata Hari"Leila Vertenbaker. The Life and Death of Mata Hari, novel. - Moscow, Pressa publishing house, 1992, circulation of 100,000 copies, translation from English. V. V. Kuznetsova
Elena Gremina. Play "Eyes of the Day"
Mata Hari is one of the heroes of the books "Hunters" and "Hunters-2" of the literary project "Ethnogenesis" of the publishing houses "Popular Literature" and "AST", which began in the spring of 2009
Also, the image of Mata Hari is present in the series of books "We, the Gods" (2004), "Breath of the Gods" (2005), "Mystery of the Gods" (2007) by the French writer and philosopher Bernard Verber
Film incarnations
Asta Nielsen - "Mata Hari" (Germany, 1920), "Spy" (1921)Magda Sonya - "Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin" (Germany, 1927)
Greta Garbo - Mata Hari (1931)
Delia Cole - "Marthe Richard au service de la France" (France, 1937)
Merle Oberon - "General Electric Theater" (TV series, USA, 1957)
Betty Marsden - "Carry on Regardless" (England, 1961)
Greta Shi - "Queen of Chauntecleer" / "La reina del Chantecler" (Spain, 1962)
Françoise Fabian - "La caméra explore le temps" (TV series, France, 1964)
Jeanne Moreau - "Mata Hari" / "Mata Hari, agent H21" (France, 1964)
Louise Martini - "Der Fall Mata Hari" (Germany, 1966)
Carmen de Lirio - "Operation Mata Hari" / "Operación Mata Hari" (Spain, 1968)
Joan Gerber - "Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp" (TV series, USA, 1970)
Zsa Zsa Gabor - "Up the Front" (England, 1972)
Helen Callianiotes - "Shanks" (USA, 1974)
Jozine van Dalsum - "Mata Hari" (TV series, Netherlands, 1981)
Jeanne-Marie Lemer - "Légitime violence" (France, 1982)
Sylvia Christel - "Mata Hari" (USA, 1985)
Domiziana Giordano - "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (TV series, USA, 1993)
Mabel Lozano - "Blasco Ibáñez" (Spain, 1997)
Joana Kelly - "Mentors" / "Mentors" (TV series, Canada, 2002)
Marouche Detmers - "Mata Hari, la vraie histoire" (France, 2003)
Suvarhala Narayanan - "The Curse of King Tut's Tomb" (USA, 2006)
Phoebe Halliwell (Alice Milano) - "Charmed" Season 6 Episode 13 "Used Karma" (TV series, USA, 1998-2006)
Vaina Jokante - "Mata Hari" (TV series, Russia, 2016)
On March 13, 1905, a small, carefully selected audience looked with curiosity at the premises of the Guimet Museum library, which that evening was turned into a kind of Indian temple: candles everywhere, eight columns were decorated with flowers, in the back of the hall there was a statue of Shiva, and in the center, surrounded by four girls in black tunics, an Indian dancer wriggled in a very revealing outfit: an embroidered chest strap, a piece of cloth tied around the hips and several bracelets. The dancer was invited as a living illustration to a lecture by Emile Guimet himself, a famous connoisseur of the East, about Indian temple dances - and with her very first movements she made everyone present forget about the lecture and everything in the world. And when at the end of the performance the fabric slipped from her hips and the dancer appeared almost completely naked in front of the audience, a cry of delight, usually inappropriate in the museum walls, shook the building.
The next day, journalists attending the performance at the Musée Guimet spread throughout France the news of Mata Hari, her mastery of the sacred art of temple dances and her divine body. The newspapers were overwhelmed with praise for the beautiful dancer, and viewers who were able to see Mata Hari's performance with their own eyes conveyed rave reviews to each other both about the dances themselves and about the rare beauty of their performer. It was said that Mata Hari, whose name means "eye of the dawn," was born in South India and was taught sacred dances from childhood. From the age of thirteen she danced naked in the temple in Kanda Swanee, and would have danced further, but an English officer in love married her and brought her to Europe.
Unfortunately, in this beautiful story there was not a word of truth.
Mata Hari was neither a dancer, nor an Indian, nor even Mata Hari. Her name was Margareta Gertrude Zelle, and her hometown was the quiet town of Leeuwarden in the Dutch province of Friesland. She was born on August 7, 1876 in the family of the owner of a hat shop Adam Zelle and his wife Antje van der Mehlen, and her childhood was the usual, unremarkable childhood of a girl from a well-to-do family: three younger brothers, pampering her only daughter, parents, a private school with three foreign languages and love of music.
But Margareta still stood out among her contemporaries - both early manifested beauty, and violent imagination, and the desire to attract attention at any cost. Her fellow practitioners recall that Margareta came to school in defiant outfits that were incredible for a provincial town, made from unusual bright fabrics. And her fantastic stories about her family and her past were so believable that they would have been unconditionally believed - if Margareta had not been inventing new ones all the time.
But the reality was both more tragic and ordinary. Adam gradually went broke, and along with his debts, his irritation with his wife and children grew. Debts in 1889 led to bankruptcy, constant quarrels - to divorce. Nine months after the divorce - in May 1891 - Antje Zelle died. Her ex-husband by that time he had already lived in Amsterdam. The children were taken apart by relatives: Margareta settled with her godfather, Mr. Fisser, who soon decided to send the girl to Leiden - to a boarding house that prepares kindergarten teachers. It was difficult to think of a more inappropriate profession for the restless and independent Margareta: it is not surprising that instead of classes, she was making eyes at the headmaster of the school. Until now, biographers argue who seduced whom, but the result was still a foregone conclusion - Margareta was forced to leave school.
She moved to live with her uncle in The Hague. At that time, it was the city where the officers of the Dutch colonial army spent their holidays - they served in Dutch India (modern Indonesia) and came to improve their health at nearby resorts. Brave men in uniforms were captivated by the beauty of young Margaret, and she, in turn, was fascinated by the military for life. This addiction to men in military uniform haunted her for the rest of her life.
Uncle, perfectly seeing the frivolous nature of his niece, kept her under strict control. The only way to escape from his care was marriage, and the only way to meet a potential groom was a marriage column in a local newspaper, since his uncle cut off all acquaintances on the street in the bud. Her attention was drawn to an ad: "An officer from the Dutch East India, now on vacation at home, wants to meet a nice girl with the aim of later marriage." Margaretha replied by attaching a photograph to the letter.
The letter was posted on behalf of Rudolph McLeod. A hereditary military man, nephew of the adjutant of King William III and cousin of the vice admiral, he came to his homeland to improve his health, which had been pretty shaken for sixteen years in the colonies. Friends decided that Rudolph - or John, as he was called - urgently needed to get married, and secretly from him posted a marriage announcement. MacLeod himself, having learned about this, ordered to return all the letters to the editor unopened - but he nevertheless read some, and one of them was a letter from the young Margareta Zella, whose face in the photograph struck Rudolph on the spot.
Captain and Mrs. McLeod
A month later, they met in person: almost forty, almost bald McLeod and eighteen-year-old Margareta - slender, big-eyed, with thick dark hair and a magnificent figure. Both decided that it was love at first sight, and after six days - on May 13, 1895 - they got engaged, and three months later they got married. On their honeymoon, they went to Wiesbaden, from where, however, they quickly left - young officers, of whom there were many at this resort, began to harass the beautiful Margarete too actively.
Eyewitnesses of the first months of marriage argued that this union was doomed to failure from the very beginning. Rudolph was rude, hot-tempered and did not pay too much attention to his wife, and Margareta, although sincerely - at first - wanted to be a good wife for him, found more and more pleasure in flirting with others. Her husband could serve as an example for her - he began to cheat on her a few months after the wedding. In addition, he turned out to be a gambler and was no fool to drink.
John with his son Norman (1899) (1899)
On January 30, 1897, a son was born into the McLeod family, who was named Norman John - in honor of his father's relatives. And on the first of May, Rudolph with his wife and son went to the place of service - to the island of Java. A year later, they had a daughter, who was named Jeanne-Louise (her family's name was simply Non: a common abbreviation of the Malay word nonah - girl), and soon Rudolph was transferred to Sumatra as a garrison commander.
Daughter Jeanne-Louise (her family name was simply Non)
His family remained in Java for the time being: Margaretha was bored, lonely, dreary, insulting - but without her husband life was much more pleasant than with him. She was tired of family life, of the tropics, of the uncouth military, of lack of money and husband's jealousy - in many ways justified. There were very few white women in those parts, and there were no such beautiful ones as Margareta at all, so it is not surprising that many began to court her at once, and it is even less surprising that she accepted these courtship with pleasure.
McLeod moved the family to Sumatra only a few months later. The position obliged him to give receptions at which his wife gladly acted as a hostess - dresses for her were ordered from Amsterdam. Family relations seemed to begin to improve, but then a tragedy occurred: their son died under mysterious circumstances. They say that he was poisoned by a nanny, whose lover was beaten by Rudolph. According to another version, the killer was just a lover who took revenge on McLeod for seducing the nanny. There is a version that the child died of cholera. Be that as it may, from that day on, relations between the spouses had hopelessly deteriorated: Rudolph, without any logic, blamed his wife for the death of his son and consoled himself in the arms of local prostitutes, and Margareta frivolously spent time with his subordinates. As they say, it was because of her not too decorous behavior that McLeod was transferred back to Java, where it became clear to both that divorce was inevitable. Margareta longed for Europe, and Rudolph longed to get rid of her. He retired and in 1902 they returned to Holland.
Mata Hari als junge Frau (Aufnahme vor 1900)
The McLeods settled in Amsterdam. One evening, Margareta returned home - and found that her husband had taken her daughter, all the valuables and fled. She immediately filed a petition for separation: according to the court's decision, the daughter remained with her mother, and Rudolph was ordered to pay alimony, but he never gave a guilder. Tired of lack of money, Margareta returned her daughter to her husband, and she left for the city of her dreams - Paris. As she later explained her decision, "I think that all wives who run away from their husbands are drawn to Paris."
1915
She never saw her daughter or husband again.
Arriving in Paris penniless, Margareta decided that her beautiful body and some experience would help her earn. But the work of the model was paid poorly, and after the famous impressionist Guillaume called her chest flat and refused her services, she decided that she had nothing more to do in Paris.
And then, becoming Mata Hari, Margareta continued to be ashamed of her breasts. Even when she was completely naked below the waist, her breasts were still covered by a bra.
In 1904, Margaretha tried to conquer Paris again. She got a job at the riding school of Monsieur Mollier - the ability to handle horses obtained in the tropics came in handy. But he once noticed that her tanned body and plasticity are more useful in dancing than in horse riding.
The words were remembered. Margareta knew that she moved well and that men were staring at her. She knew the value of her beauty - and herself: she never learned to dance, but she knew how to charm and seduce. In addition, she knew the Malay language well and had a good visual memory - folk dances, which were one of the few entertainments in Java and Sumatra, she remembered very well, because she saw them more than once - and her dark skin and dark, almost black hair would help she should pass for a native of Southeast Asia.
At an evening with the leading actress of the Comédie Française Cecile Sorel, wife of the Count de Segur, Mata Hari captivated the richest "chocolate king" Gaston Meunier, who not only took several nude photographs of Mata Hari, but also became her lover and maintainer. These pictures played a fatal role in the fate of Mata Hari: Rudolph McLeod, recognizing his ex-wife in newspaper photos and realizing what she was doing, demanded a divorce. The lawyer tried for a long time to get the consent of the former Mrs. McLeod to divorce, but she pretended not to understand what they wanted from her until the lawyer showed her one of those candid pictures. It was clear that if he was presented to the court, then a scandal that could affect their daughter could not be avoided. Margareta agreed - the final divorce took place on April 26, 1906.
Rudolph McLeod has never seen his ex-wife on stage. To curious journalists who decided to find out his opinion on the stage talents of Mata Hari, he said: "She has flat feet, and she absolutely cannot dance." And when she performed in The Hague and friends called him to the show, McLeod said: "I saw her in all possible positions, and I have nothing else to look at."
The newspapers were full of frenzied enthusiasm, and the public was ready to carry the "Indian goddess" in their arms. Then there was a two-week tour in Spain, where her dances were called "tactful and sensual", and the applause that accompanied them - "sensational"; it was also said that during the trip she seduced some members of the royal family and the Ambassador of France Jules Cambon - the latter remained a close friend of Mata Hari for many years.
In a year and a half, Mata Hari became the highest paid, most popular and most talked about dancer in the world. Postcards with her images were sold in every store, cigarettes of her name were released (as they wrote in the advertisement, "the best Indian cigarettes made from tobacco from the island of Sumatra") and cookies, on the cans of which were her portraits - in one such jar she carried breakfast to school Non McLeod, daughter of Mata Hari. The dancer spent huge sums on luxurious outfits and jewelry, but earned so much that she could already afford not to perform at all. After the Vienna tour, she traveled with Kipert for several months across Europe and Egypt - she returned to Paris only at the end of 1907.
Her love affairs have long attracted as much - if not more - interest than her dancing.
However, in 1913, Mata Hari felt that a crisis was impending. Her dances no longer aroused the former enthusiasm, and the money became less and less.
The war broke out on August 1
Mata Hari tries to leave for Switzerland, but only her luggage went there - the dancer herself was not allowed into the country, and she had to return to Berlin. She was left without things, without money, without patrons, but a man rescued her again - one Dutchman, a neighbor in the hotel, having learned about the plight of his countrywoman, bought her a ticket to Holland and gave her some money.
In Holland, right on the street, she found another admirer - the banker Van der Skalch. The banker mistook her for a Russian; he left Mata Hari as soon as he found out that she was Dutch - as she herself admitted, "an affair with a Russian for a Dutchman was a real adventure, and there is nothing unusual about a compatriot." However, Van der Skalch was a real gentleman - before parting, he paid all her bills.
The place of the banker was taken at once by two: Baron Eduard Willem Van der Capellen, whom Mata Hari met several years ago, and the Marquis de Beaufort. But in Holland she was unbearably bored, she is striving with all her might to Paris. At the end of 1915, she arrives in the French capital, where she continues to lead her former frivolous lifestyle, which in wartime looks very inappropriate and suspicious. Dinners for the military, constant trips to Europe and private meetings with high-ranking officers in the face of growing spy mania seem to be outright provocations - so it is quite understandable why at this time Mata Hari is closely watched by agents of the French, German and British special services. Researchers write that she was often offered money for valuable information - however, Mata Hari herself later admitted that she considered them payment for her love. As it became known in 1941, in the fall of 1915, she was recruited by German intelligence - however, not a single intelligible message from agent N-21 (as Mata Hari was listed in the documents) was never received.
At this unsuitable time for human feelings, she fell in love - with the Russian, captain of the Imperial Guards Regiment, Vadim Maslov. She fell in love so much that she was even going to marry him. The meeting of the lovers was scheduled in the resort town of Vittel - but by chance it was in the front-line zone, where a special pass was needed. After him, Mata Hari went to the military bureau for foreigners on the Boulevard Saint-Germain - but she made the wrong door and ended up with Captain Georges Lade, the head of French counterintelligence. And he, without thinking twice, recruited Mata Hari - for one million francs (which she never received).
After several weeks with his beloved, Mata Hari returns to Paris. As she later explained, she needed money so that Maslov's family would allow him to marry her. And on the way to Holland (she had to go around the fronts, through Spain), where Vadim was waiting for her, Mata Hari was arrested: the British special services took her for the German spy Klara Benedict, but they released her - after Mata Hari admitted that in fact she works for France.
This whole story reached Lada: the British transparently hinted to him that recruiting such a narrow-minded and frivolous person like Mata Hari was not the smartest act in his life. Perhaps it was since then that Lada took a dislike to her - so much so that he eventually brought her under the death sentence.
She was arrested on February 13, 1917 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. It was often written that she tried to seduce a police officer who came with a warrant, but there were six of them, so “Zelle, Marguerite, known as Mata Hari, residing at the Élysée Palace, Protestant, foreign born in Holland on August 7, 1876, height one meter seventy-eight centimeters, able to read and write ”, was sent to the prison Saint-Lazare on charges of espionage and the release of state secrets. The first thing she did was write to the governor of the prison: “I am innocent and have never engaged in any espionage activities against France. In view of this, I ask you to give the necessary instructions so that they would let me out of here. "
She spent eight months in prison. All her attempts to justify herself were in vain, the investigation was biased, and the verdict was a foregone conclusion. France was losing one battle after another, and someone had to answer for the failures of the command. By blaming all the blunders on spies, and then publicly condemning one - more precisely, one - the French government hoped to somehow justify itself in the eyes of its citizens.
One of the participants in the trial, Andre Morne, later said that "the testimony would not even be enough to whip the cat." All the interrogated unanimously insisted that she never asked anything, did not tell anyone anything, and she was only interested in love and entertainment, and not the location of military facilities or the timing of military operations, and only Lada insisted on her complete guilt. Mata Hari was blamed for everything: visits with Alfred Kipert to the imperial maneuvers in 1906 and meetings with German officers in The Hague, the death of three ships, for which she was late, about to leave Paris in 1916, and the arrest of one of the French agents in Belgium. The trial lasted only two days, and after a short consultation the verdict was pronounced: execution.
The lawyer and old friend of Mata Hari Edouard Klune - he was seventy-four years old - tried to declare that Mata Hari was pregnant with him (according to French law, a pregnant woman cannot be executed), but she herself refused this trick. Holland was not even informed about the fate of her citizen. The President rejected a request for clemency; Mata Hari found out about this only the morning before the execution. She was forty-one years old.
On the morning of October 15, 1917, Mata Hari, wearing a pearl gray dress, a veiled straw hat, her finest shoes and long gloves, stood in front of the twelve zouaves, the firing squad. She refused the blindfold, did not want to be tied to the pole - eyewitnesses recall that she was the most calm person of all who were present there. At 6.15 - at dawn - Mata Hari was gone.
Upon learning of this, her ex-husband said: "Whatever she did, she did not deserve this."
The body, as unclaimed by relatives, was handed over to medical students for practice. All her property was sold at an auction - if translated into modern money, only two and a half thousand dollars were raised. Rudolph McLeod tried to get the French government to issue the inheritance of his ex-wife in favor of their daughter, but was refused: all the property of Mata Hari went "in favor of the French Republic to cover legal costs and damage from its criminal activities." By the way, Jeanne-Louise McLeod would not need the inheritance anyway: four months later she suddenly died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Mata Hari loved men and knew how to give love. But men do not like to be conquered by a woman who is stronger than them, and they take revenge. Only in history were not those who killed Mata Hari, but she - an amazing, mysterious, mysterious woman who simply knew how to love better than others.
