Mata Hari: A Renowned Exotic Dancer Executed For Wartime Espionage

The name Mata Hari conjures up imagery of beauty, seduction and espionage. The price for her duplicity during wartime became her execution. Margaretha Zelle was born the eldest of four children in August 1876 to Dutch parents. She was raised initially in the Netherlands in an affluent family. At thirteen, her family fell apart. Her mother died and divorced father remarried and the children were disbursed. She was sent to live with her godfather. A lecherous headmaster prompted her to be removed from school and relocate to her uncle’s home in The Hague.

At eighteen, she answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper by a Dutch Army Captain seeking a wife in the Dutch East Indies (currently Indonesia). She answered the ad and they married. Her husband was an alcoholic and wife beater. He openly kept a mistress and Zelle abandoned him for another officer. She studied local Indonesian culture for several months and joined a local dance company. She created her signature artistic name, Mata Hari during this period

Her return to Europe prompted a move to Paris in 1903 where she performed as a circus horse rider called Lady MacLeod. The following year, she transferred her talents towards exotic dancing, Her provocative style and openly flaunting of her body captivated audiences and she became an instant success. By 1910, her act had become widely copied by fresher faces and her novelty had dimmed. Many critics dismissed her in distain claiming she lacked basic dancing skills.

As World War I darkened the European landscape, the mythology behind Mata Hari prowess flourished to exaggerated proportions. The Netherlands remained neutral during the conflict. As a Dutch citizen, Zelle could freely cross national borders. Her role as an effective German spy has long been debated. Any secrets that she passed along were purely for financial gain. Most purportedly revealed gossip about the sex lives of French politicians and generals.

On February 13, 1917, she would be arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysees Palace on the Champs d’Elysees. The hotel is currently a Dior retail boutique. Her trial became headline news. She was condemned to death and executed by a firing squad. Her final flourish involved refusing a blindfold and blowing a defiant kiss to her firing squad of twelve soldiers.