Mata Hari

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Mata Hari (disambiguation) .

Mata Hari (1906)

Mata Hari ( Malay "sun", literally "eye of the day") was the stage name of the Dutch dancer Margaretha Geertruida cell (born  August 7, 1876 in Leeuwarden ; † October 15, 1917 in Vincennes near Paris , France ). During their marriage, she also used the names Marguerite Campbell and Lady Gretha MacLeod . As a spy for the German intelligence service , she had the code name H 21 .

Mata Hari was famous as an exotic nude dancer and eccentric artist in the period before and during the First World War . In addition, she became known as a German spy. She was sentenced to death on July 25, 1917 for double espionage and high treason by the judges of a French military tribunal and executed in Vincennes on October 15 .

Mata Hari was never the sophisticated double agent, as stylized in the judgment of 1917 and later representations - rather a welcome pawn sacrifice by the French military court, because the enthusiasm for war waned noticeably and a scapegoat for defeats and losses seemed helpful. Mata Hari came in late autumn 1915 at the service of the German secret IIIb and was also enlisted in the following year by the French secret service activities against the German Reich. However, it appears from the contemporary files of the British Secret Service Security Service (MI 5), released on January 21, 1999 and now publicly available in the UK's The National Archives , that they do not contain any essential secrets, either to the Germans or to the French, betrayed - they did not have contacts in critical military or war-important areas. From the current sources, it seems that at the end of her dance career, Mata Hari tried to avert her threatened fate as an artist with a pathetic, naive, meaningless informational activity, suffering from acute financial difficulties, and thereby failed to recognize the dangerousness of her actions .

The German war propaganda in the First World War , which intended to exploit the case, described them as “victims of the French war madness” and heralded its dramatic-romantic transfiguration with the political finale of the idol . So far, her life story has been the subject of over 250 books and a dozen films. The sources are still thin, however, as only a fraction of these books and films are based on reliable sources or are inclined to face actual historical developments.

Artist name

The stage name Mata Hari comes from the Malay language and means " sun " or literally translated "eye" ( mata ) of the "day" ( hari ). After initial success as a dancer, Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod took this name in 1905 and thus indirectly supported rumors spread in the press that she was the daughter of an oriental ruler.

Sources

Geertruida cell, later Mata Hari

The accounts of the life and background of the Mata Hari are as numerous as they are contradicting. Many details from her biography are still controversial to this day. The various versions of her résumé , from which a tightly woven web of sagas and legends emerged, can be traced back to the fact that Mata Hari herself invented numerous stories with which she wanted to depict the facts of her life better than the reality was. On the other hand, their biographers mixed the actual life data with randomly invented stories, controversial anecdotes and one-sided representations of the espionage allegations and often presented them as “authentic source material”. The inventiveness of some authors was hardly inferior to Mata Hari's own wealth of imagination. So already wrote Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg in the source evidence of his 1936 biography, first published:

“There has been a fair amount of literature on Mata Hari over the past twenty years. If one subjects the individual writings to a critical examination, there is a lot of chaff and very little wheat left, yes one is downright astonished that about a woman who was in the limelight of the public for a while and occupied the authorities, the press and literature, the most contradicting and unlikely stories were spread ... "

- (Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. Novel of her life. )

With regard to research into Mata Hari's espionage activities and contact with the German, British and French intelligence services, Sam Waagenaar (1908–1997) is considered the most reliable source among her biographers. He worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1930s and was involved in researching the 1930 film Mata Hari with Greta Garbo . He spoke to contemporary witnesses and received two scrapbooks from the maid Anna Lintjens in which Mata Hari had collected photos and press articles about himself and provided them with notes. Three decades later, Waagenaar sifted through the old material, continued research and wrote his first biography, which appeared in 1963; a second, revised version appeared in 1976. In his foreword to the German first edition of the book Mata Hari. The first true report on the legendary spy claims Waagenaar that only "two outsiders" have ever seen the file: "Alain Presles, a French journalist who was lucky enough to copy parts of this file ... and me." This translation was his first Book about Mata Hari, which in its original Dutch version is entitled De moord op Mata Hari (“The murder of Mata Hari”). After further research, he published a second book in 1976, which, however, already conveyed a radically changed image in the title: Mata Hari: niet zo onschuldig (“Mata Hari, [but] not so innocent”). The German version has the harmless title: It was called Mata Hari. Image of a life, document of a time .

As long as - see above - the French court files are still inaccessible, special attention had to be paid to the information of direct eyewitnesses and contemporaries . The oldest source work is the "Memoirs" edited by Mata Hari's father Adam Cell: Mata-Hari - Mevr. MG Mac Leod cell. De levensgeschiedenis mijner butter en mijne grieven tegen hair vroegeren real genoot. Met portretten, documenten, fac-simile's en bijlagen ("Mata Hari - Mrs. MG Mac Leod cell. The life story of my daughter and my annoyance about her former husband. With portraits, documents, facsimiles and enclosures"), first published in 1907 by Veldt, Amsterdam, published. It is, however, a one-sided plea by a father who is certainly loving but also has a flowering imagination for his daughter and against her husband, who is to be blamed for the unhappy marriage. The book contains forged documents on a fictitious line of ancestors, which "proves" the descent of the West Frisian family from the Guelph Dukes of the House of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle and thus the relationship to most of the European ruling houses, so that the information there is given with the utmost caution are enjoying.

For a long time, the Dutch author and poet Gerrit Hendrik Priem (1865–1933) with his 1907 pamphlet De naakte Waarheid omtrent Mata Hari ("The naked truth about Mata Hari") countered these attempts by the father to help the daughter. which supposedly came about after a surprising and completely honest interview with Mata Hari by the author. Today, however, researchers agree that this interview was bogus and fictitious.

A direct eyewitness, indeed a major contributor, was the French intelligence officer Georges Ladoux (1875–1933), who in August 1914 was appointed head of press and telegram censorship at the War Ministry by the Commander-in-Chief of the French Armed Forces , General Joseph Joffre , and later that of him self-established defense department of the Paris War Ministry. After the end of the war, the journalistically experienced Ladoux wrote several books about his experiences in the world war as well as his view of things in the Mata Hari affair, which, however, were "characterized by a high fictional content and a strong need for justification" and therefore cannot be regarded as a reliable source either.

Since a large part of the available information is extremely problematic for all these reasons, the information presented in this article is, if not otherwise mentioned, with the data of the Leeuwarden community archive, the Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden , the Leeuwarder Fries Museum and the official biography of the Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (Institute for Dutch History) and - as far as published - correspond to the current findings of the Leeuwarder Mata-Hari working group.

Early years

Childhood and adolescence

Mata Hari's birthplace was in this Leeuwarder Straße, called Kelders

Leeuwarden, Grote Kerkstraat. Mata Hari lived in the front right house from 1883 to 1889

Margaretha Geertruida cell was born on August 7, 1876 as the firstborn and only daughter of the hatter Adam cell (1840-1910) and his wife Antje van der Meulen (1842-1891) in Leeuwarden , the capital of the Dutch province of Friesland . Her mother had Javanese roots. She had three younger brothers, Johannes Henderikus (1878-1936) and the twins Ari Anne (1881-1955) and Cornelis Coenrad (1881-1956).

Greet , as she was called in childhood (which she did not like - she insisted on her full name, only allowed the nickname M'greet ), first attended the Leeuwarder community school Hofschooltje on Raadhuisplein (town hall square) and from September 1890 the Middelbare Meisjes School on Grote Kerkstraat (Große Kirchstraße), where she only attended irregularly and with poor grades. In one of the school reports available in the Leeuwarder municipal archive, the remark “Is denkelijk vertrokken!” (Is presumably displaced) is also contained. During her school visit she learned the English, French and German languages.

Her father Adam Zell, who ran a hat shop in Kelders H23 (today Kelders 33) in downtown Leeuwardens, was known in the town as a boor and spendthrift, who liked to be called " baron ", although he was not of noble descent. Mata Hari also pursued the desire to use a noble name later on: In 1908 she submitted the petition to the cabinet of the Queen of the Netherlands Wilhelmina to change her family name cell MacLeod to “van cell van Ahlden”. When the application was rejected, she changed her application - now addressed personally to the Queen - and wished to use the family name "van Slooten cell". But this application was also rejected. Corresponding correspondence was only rediscovered a few years ago and has been in the Fries Museum since 2007 .

Successful stock market speculation enabled Margaretha's father to live on a comparatively large footing. In 1883 he bought an old patrician house at 28 Grote Kerkstraat, which was then the largest house on the square. For her sixth birthday she received a carriage drawn by goats from him. Even 50 years later, people in Leeuwarden spoke of the "little girl with dark skin, almond-shaped eyes and black hair on the little ladder cart". She looked like an oriental princess.

The family's financial carelessness did not last long, however. At the beginning of 1889 the father had to file for bankruptcy as a result of loss-making speculations and swap the spacious and luxurious city ​​palace for an apartment on the first floor at 30 Willemskade. The hatmaker's reputation, which had been considerable until then, was lost in Leeuwarden, which had a population of around 27,000 at the time, and his marriage was also over.

Mata Hari as a young woman (photo taken before 1900)

In September 1890 the couple agreed to "separate bed and table" and in March 1891 the father moved to Amsterdam , where he took up a job as a traveling salesman. There was no official divorce because Antje Zell died of tuberculosis on May 9, 1891 . While the father took the twins Ari and Cornelis to Amsterdam after their mother's death, where he remarried very quickly and used his second wife's money to pursue a little profitable retail trade in petroleum , daughter Margaretha and son Johannes came to different family members.

The maternal grandmother looked after the children and also paid for their upbringing . Margaretha came to the house of her godfather, a Mr. Visser in Sneek , who was married to a sister of Adam Zell. He sent her to Leiden to train as a kindergarten teacher - a profession for which she, however, as well as her friends and acquaintances judged it, regarded herself as completely unsuitable. In fact, she dropped out after a short time. The reasons for this are conveyed very differently: Neither in the Leeuwaard municipal archive nor in the official biography of the Institute for Dutch History is any information given, while tabloid publications indicate a relationship between the school's director, Wybrandus Haanstra (1841–1925), and the 15-year-old as Find the reason and take turns talking about rape , seduction, or an aging man's consenting relationship with a lonely girl that caused public nuisance that caused her to drop out of school. Waagenaar only writes on the subject: “In Leiden, the head of the school, Mr. Wybrandus Haanstra, fell in love with her. How would her life have been if he hadn't fallen in love with her? ”Without further explanation. Marijke Huisman says: "When she was half naked encountered on the lap of the school principal, she had to leave the establishment." It is certain only that she in her 17 years, ie 1892-93, to their "Uncle Taconis" to The Hague went or was sent and Haanstra suffered no professional damage from the incident, whatever the nature of the incident. He remained the headmaster and is still considered a true Dutch pioneer in the education and training of preschool children.

Marriage and residence in the Dutch East Indies

Margaretha met her future husband in 1895 through a newspaper advertisement in Nieuws van den Dag . The ad that aroused her interest read: Officier met verlof uit Indië zoekt meisje met Ran karakter met het doel een huwelijk aan te gaan (" Officer , on vacation from (Dutch) India, is looking for a young woman with an amiable character to marry") . The Dutch colonial officer Campbell Rudolph (John) MacLeod (1856–1928) was around 20 years older, suffered from rheumatism and had diabetes . Despite the age difference, Margaretha was impressed by MacLeod's demeanor.

Pictures of the wedding to John MacLeod on July 11, 1895

On July 11, 1895, Margaretha Geertruida cell, who was just 19 years old, married the officer John MacLeod. The marriage took place in the Amsterdam City Hall, and the couple moved in with John's sister Frida in her house on the Leidsekade, which she has lived in alone since her husband's death. They spent their honeymoon in Wiesbaden . On January 30, 1896 - more than two months early according to moral standards at the time - she gave birth to son Norman John. Other sources cite January 30, 1897 as Norman's date of birth.

The first problems quickly appeared. The sisters-in-law did not understand each other, and there was more and more quarrel between the couple because Margaretha, who now asked for Greta or Gresha , was dissatisfied with their living conditions. On the other hand, MacLeod is said to have had a rough character and was difficult to deal with. In any case, the marriage was not considered harmonious even in this early period.

Margaretha and John MacLeod on their way to the Dutch East Indies (1897)

On May 1, 1897, the couple boarded the steamer SS Prinses Amalia to travel to Batavia - today's Jakarta - on Java in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies . Her husband was stationed in Ambarawa, a small town not far from Semarang . In December of the same year MacLeod was promoted to major and transferred to Malang , where on May 2, 1898 the daughter Jeanne Louise, called Non ( Malay : girl), was born.

Malang was already a popular place to stay during the colonial times because of its pleasantly cooler climate in the East Javanese mountains at around 500 m above sea level and offered corresponding entertainment and employment opportunities. Margaretha, who had previously suffered from boredom and the climatic conditions, blossomed and participated intensively in cultural life. When the play The Crusaders by August von Kotzebue was performed on the occasion of the celebrations for Queen Wilhelmina's accession to the throne , Margaretha was allowed to play the role of Queen. This was also her first public appearance.

Daughter Jeanne Louise, called Non (1903)

John with son Norman (1899)

In March 1899 John MacLeod was transferred to Medan on Sumatra . The couple were separated for about seven months after moving. During this time there were further difficulties and personal disputes in her mail and telegram contact. John MacLeod suffered from jealousy, especially since the stage appearance and what he considered to be the excessively permissive behavior of his wife, but also repeatedly admonished her to be more frugal; his young wife responded to both with defiant reactions or snippy remarks. The age and personality differences between the two led to deeper and deeper problems. The couple became increasingly estranged.

On June 28, 1899, his son Norman died of poisoning . The exact circumstances of the death remained unclear. According to most biographers, a cholera maid revealed to the family on her deathbed a few weeks later that she had poisoned Norman's food to avenge her lover's earlier punishment by MacLeod. Little Non escaped this fate - depending on the version - only with the quick help of a doctor or due to the fact that she was still breastfed by her mother . In her biography Femme Fatale: A Biography of Mata Hari, Pat Shipman rejects this story as extremely implausible. According to their hypothesis, Norman died as a result of the syphilis with which MacLeod infected his wife and, through them, their two children. Norman could have died either directly from the effects of the disease or after the military doctor had been given too high a dose of the toxic mercury . Poisoning of the children by MacLeod himself was also discussed.

In September 1900, Major MacLeod retired after 28 years of service, and in October the family moved to Sindanglaya . Margaretha desperately wanted to go back to Europe , but John hesitated, realizing that his pension would not be enough for a decent life there. The relationship problems grew stronger, the marriage was completely shattered. In March 1902 the couple returned to the Netherlands together and, for financial reasons, had to stay with John's sister Frida in Amsterdam, where they lived in separate rooms. There were repeated reconciliations, which after a few weeks turned into arguments and separation. On August 30, 1902, the Amsterdam District Court pronounced the “separation of table and bed”. John was sentenced to pay alimony of 100 guilders a month to his wife . Daughter Non was assigned to the mother, but remained by mutual agreement with the father, who in the meantime had settled in Velp (today the municipality of Grave ) and remarried.

John did not meet his maintenance obligation to Margaretha, so that she was forced to provide for her own living. In October 1903 she traveled to Paris with the vague idea of starting a career as a mannequin . However, her hopes were dashed, and in order to replenish her limited financial resources, she became a model for various painters . Octave Guillonnet (1872–1967) initially rejected it as unsuitable, but finally portrayed it out of pity for a poster for the Théâtre de la Gaîté after a fainting fit . His colleague Gustave Assire (1870–1941) also hired her once as a model. There were no further orders, and Margaretha returned to the Netherlands disaffected. A year later she tried again to gain a foothold in Paris and applied as a rider (“Amazone”) in the then world-famous Cirque Molier . This attempt was also unsuccessful.

Dance career

Legends

Mata Hari (around 1906)

Between 1903 and 1905 Margaretha MacLeod designed her veil dance as well as the costume and legend of an Indian temple dancer, which fell on fertile ground with her audience. Since there were few experts in Indian or Javanese dances and culture, she hardly had to fear exposure of her fantasy stories, lies and falsehoods. The Paris of the Belle Époque was used to foreign and frivolous dancers; however, an Indian Bajadere with a mysterious history and exotic origins was something new. The “better society” of Paris was always looking for sensations and interesting entertainment. The story and dance of Mata Hari fascinated the rich and bored audience. In addition, Margaretha mastered “the art of erotic undressing ” perfectly.

"Paris had never seen anything like it before ... graceful gestures turned into passionate twists - and in the end a naked beauty stood in front of the enraptured ladies and gentlemen of society."

- DER SPIEGEL contemporary stories

A journalist wrote as a contemporary witness in the Courrier français :

“A large dark figure floats in. Strong, brown, hot-blooded. Her dark complexion, full lips and shiny eyes are evidence of distant lands, of scorching sun and tropical rain. It sways under the veils that conceal and reveal it at the same time. [...] The spectacle cannot be compared to anything we have ever seen. Her breasts lift languidly, her eyes glisten with moisture. The hands stretch and sink back down as if they were slack from the sun and heat. [...] Your secular dance is a prayer; lust becomes adoration. We can only guess what she implores [...] The beautiful body pleads, writhes and surrenders: it is, as it were, the dissolution of desire in desire. "

- Marcel Lami in the "Courrier français"

From then on, Margaretha posed as exotic, claiming that she came from the south of India, from the coast of Malabar , from the holy city of Jaffnapatam (which is not on the Malabar coast, but on Ceylon ), and her family consist of members of the upper caste of the Brahmins . She grew up in the underground hall of the god Shiva and was instructed from childhood in the ritual temple dances , which she danced day after day in honor of the gods. She went out in beautiful gardens, was wreathed with garlands of jasmine and decorated the altars of the gods. She would have lived in this place all her life if a beautiful young British officer had not seen her at such a dance, fell madly in love with her, kidnapped her and married her. She then gave birth to a son, Norman, whom a fanatical servant poisoned for no reason. She, in turn, then - according to Indian custom - strangled the servant with her own hands.

Historic photo of an Indian temple sculpture of the Hindu goddess Bhavani , the Shivaji gives her sword

She changed this legend from time to time. Often she settled her childhood on Java. She often claimed to be the granddaughter of a Javanese sultan whose daughter married a Dutch officer. When she was two she went to boarding school in Germany and, when she was 16, married the British officer MacLeod.

Incidentally, Mata Hari's exotic origins were still considered a fact until the end of the 1920s. Although partial doubts about her life story arose early on, including from the French writer and dancer Colette , Mata Hari's legend of her Indian or Indonesian origins was not revealed until 1930 by the journalist Charles S. Heymans. Her place of birth, her parents and the circumstances that made her a dancer remained her well-kept secret that few knew.

Mata Hari had spent a few years in Indonesia, but neither learned nor studied Indian dances more intensively. What she knew about Indian dances and love arts, she probably took from a translation of the Kama Sutra and modified it for her own purposes. Margaretha had not had an opportunity to take a direct look at the world of Hinduism , within which the temple dance tradition had developed. She had never been to India, and this tradition is unknown in Indonesia.

But she could tell whatever she wanted, she was believed unconditionally; It was precisely this mysterious, exotic note that had an impact on her adventurous audience and paved her way to success. It became a sensation. The newspapers wrote about her, the critics threw themselves off their compliments, everyone was talking about her, tout Paris (all of Paris) wanted to see her. Her triumph as a celebrated dancer began.

• Hand-colored series of postcards by Lucien Walery from 1906
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The dancer Mata Hari

According to a research from January Brokken she danced at the time of her second stay in Paris a snake dance in a bar on Montmartre where you became aware of them and to an appearance in the prestigious attending a charity event salon of Madame Kiréevsky have invited. The appearance took place at the end of January 1905, she was announced as Lady MacLeod. Other patrons became interested in Lady MacLeod through press releases announcing “a woman from the Far East ” “who came to Europe laden with perfume and jewels to be veiled and uncovered” .

Mata Hari in the Musée Guimet (1905)

“Lady Mac Leod, whose name will soon be known all over Paris, brought with her from India, where she was married to a high officer, temple dances based on rather idiosyncratic legends. At the diner de faveur at Julien, chaired by Marthe Régnier from Vaudeville and Monsieur Tauride, the director of the Odéon, our colleague Georges Visinet read the invocation of the god Shiwa with his powerful voice. [...] With remarkable suppleness, Lady Mac Leod presents these really remarkable dances, which are enthusiastically received in clubs and salons. The danced legend of the princess and the enchanting flower met with great applause. "

- Le Courrier français of February 9, 1905

At the invitation of the industrialist Émile Guimet , who had followed her performance in the Salon Kiréevsky, she danced on March 13, 1905 in his Museum Guimet in front of a select audience and presented imitations of Indian temple dances there. He provided her with matching dance clothes, a sarong and an embroidered bustier , veil and jewelry, and advised her to use a stage name. Although she was announced in the newspapers as Lady Mac Leod, it was on that day that she set her final stage name - Mata Hari. Matahari means “sun” in Malay (literally “eye of the day”).

The Musée Guimet in Paris today

The scene in which she last danced almost naked was a sensation and a scandal at the same time. This was followed by appearances at the soirées of banker Baron Henri de Rothschild (1872-1946), the stage actress Cécile Sorel (1873-1966), Gaston Menier, heir to the Menier chocolate dynasty , Natalie Clifford Barney and many others.

The year 1905 was the most successful for Mata Hari. She gave 35 performances, earned around 10,000 French francs per evening , stayed in the most expensive hotels and lived in her own apartment at number 3 rue Balzac in the 8th arrondissement of Paris . In May she performed at the Théâtre du Trocadéro , which she repeated in June and July. She was also contacted by the newspaper editor and impresario Gabriel Astruc , who was preparing a variety program for the Olympic Theater and invited her as the main attraction.

At the end of the year she announced to a Dutch journalist that she would give up dancing and marry an Eastern European prince . Such and similar false reports, apparently deliberately placed by Mata Hari, ensured that the public's interest in the mysterious dancer did not diminish. Nevertheless, she had to struggle with competition after a short time. Suzy Deguez, dancer in the Folies Bergère , copied her “temple dances”, soon followed by other dancers. Mata Hari reacted calmly and promised extraordinary sensations, which she will bring to the stage shortly. The interest in her, especially as an advertising icon, remained unbroken regardless of the burgeoning competition. They booked the big variety shows, one engagement followed the other, their picture appeared on postcards, cigarette boxes and cookie jars.

Her first foreign engagement took her to Spain in 1906 in the Central Kursaal in Madrid . Here she met the French ambassador Jules Cambon . This acquaintance later did not save her life, but Cambon was the only one who testified in her 1917 trial in her favor and did not hide.

In the same year she appeared in front of a large audience at the Paris Theater Olympia as part of a variety program. In Monte-Carlo she was seen in the third act of Jules Massenet's opera Le roi de Lahore as Salomé alongside the ballerina Carlotta Zambelli (1875–1968).

On April 26, 1906, the divorce decree was passed for their marriage. Mata Hari was divorced guilty because of nude photos she had made for a sculptor and which were sold to lovers for unexplained reasons and thus circulated in public. Her audience did not learn anything about this process, she passed herself off as the mysterious Indian temple bajadere Mata Hari, about whose romantic origins the newspapers trumped each other with fantastic stories.

After her triumphant performance in Monte-Carlo, Mata Hari traveled to Vienna to perform at the Apollo Theater , where she also enjoyed great success. The newspapers were full of rave reviews:

“ Isadora Duncan is dead, long live Mata Hari! The barefoot dancer is vieux jeu, the artist up to date shows more […] Mata Hari's dances are a prayer… Indians dance when they honor the gods. Mata Hari himself takes a measured step. A junonic appearance. Large, fiery eyes give her classy face a special expression. The dark complexion - apparently heirloom from Grandpa Regent - dresses her splendidly, an exotic beauty of the first order. She is wrapped in a wrinkled white cloth, and her deep black hair is adorned with a red rose. And Mata Hari dances […] That means: she doesn't dance. She says a prayer in front of the idol like a priest does worship. [...] Under the veil, the beautiful dancer wears a breast ornament and a gold belt on her upper body ... nothing else. The boldness of the costume creates a little sensation. But not the slightest glimmer of indecency ... What the artist reveals in the dance is pure art. The dance closes with the victory of love over restraint [...] the veil falls. There is powerful applause. But Mata Hari has already disappeared. "

- New Vienna Journal of December 15, 1906

Mata Hari (around 1907)

She came to Berlin for the first time in 1907 for an appearance in the Varieté Wintergarten on Friedrichstrasse and became a sensation here too. Subsequently, she is said to have lived for several months in Berlin with the Marienfeld manor owner Alfred Kiepert, a wealthy lieutenant of the " Eleventh Hussar Regiment of Westphalia ", at 18 Nachodstrasse. Meanwhile, the first rumors about her true identity surfaced, and Mata Hari defended himself in the press with a changed life story: “He (the father of Mata Hari) was a career officer . He let me grow up in Java and then sent me to an aristocratic boarding school in Wiesbaden . "

In Berlin she also gave a performance for the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and his family. Another rumor reported a relationship between the dancer and the emperor's son. This was not denied by her, which should be interpreted negatively in her process.

She returned to Paris in 1907. In the same year the book Mata-Hari - Mevr , written by her father Adam, was published . MG Mac Leod cell. De levensgeschiedenis mijner butter en mijne grieven tegen hair vroegeren real genoot. With portraits, documents, fac-similes en bijlagen. This “life story” contained, in addition to forged documents with which the father wanted to prove his daughter's aristocratic descent, above all accusations against her ex-husband.

In the winter of 1907 she went - possibly together with Alfred Kiepert - on a trip to Egypt and disappeared for her European following. It was rumored that she was “in the Nile to study the ancient mysteries”. On March 30, 1907, Mata Hari was in Rome and telegraphed to her manager whether she had received any new engagements in the meantime. She also wrote to Richard Strauss to propose himself for his new production as Salome : "Only I can dance Salome." When she received no answer, she traveled back to Paris.

Career break

Maud Allan as Salome around 1906, in this illustration an almost perfect copy of Mata Hari

Mata Hari, at the peak of her success

When Mata Hari arrived in France , she discovered that she had almost been forgotten as an artist and that Paris was teeming with copies of her dances. The dancer Colette was seen almost naked in The Egyptian Dream in the Moulin Rouge , in Berlin the Moroccan dancer Sulamith Raha performed her sword dance , the veil dance and a belly dance in Berlin , and Maud Allan successfully toured Europe with her Visions of Salome . In response, Mata Hari announced in the September 20, 1908 edition of The Era , a weekly newspaper for art and culture, that she was stepping down from the stage and complained about her competitors: “Since then, some women have taken the title of oriental dancer for themselves in claim. I would perhaps be flattered by such evidence, if the performances of these ladies had some scientific and aesthetic value, but that is not the case. "

But her star had not yet sunk. She was still a valued member of Paris society and the newspapers reported on her regularly. She danced again more often at charity events, such as the Trocadéro , the Pont aux Dames and the Houlgate .

In 1910 she took over the role of Cleopatra in Antar from Nikolai Andrejewitsch Rimski-Korsakow in Monte-Carlo. But Antoine, the inventor of realistic theater and director of the play, was dissatisfied with her performance as a dancer. When she expected to be hired by Antoine for the performance of Antar in his own theater on Boulevard de Strasbourg, she was disappointed. Journalists quickly became aware of the argument between the director and the dancer, and both passed each other's statements to the press. Mata Hari sued the court for defamation and demanded damages. Antoine then filed a counterclaim against Mata Hari. The process dragged on until December 1911; Mata Hari won. Her honor was restored, but there were no further engagements in the period that followed.

From the summer of 1910 to the end of 1911 she lived - unnoticed by the public - together with her domestic servant Anna Lintjes in Esvres, France, in the castle de la Dorée of the married banker Xavier Rousseau, whose mistress she was. After this affair, she had to look after her own livelihood again and increasingly sought contact with Astruc, who was indeed able to secure a number of new engagements for her, including the appearance that was later understood to be the high point of her career. In December 1911 she danced The Princess and the Magic Flower in the fifth act of Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Armide at La Scala in Milan , and in January 1912 she played Venus in Antonio Marceno's ballet Bacchus and Gambrinus . While Venus was otherwise portrayed by female artists with blonde hair, Mata Hari appeared as the much-praised "Black Venus" with her own dark hair.

She also danced the Salome in the private salons of the Italian upper class. In March 1912 she tried to get an engagement from Sergei Djagilew , who celebrated fabulous successes with his ensemble in Europe, but was brusquely rejected. When she was performing in Monte-Carlo, she and Dyagilev had come into contact, and after she had celebrated success as Black Venus, the serious thought arose of performing with the Ballets Russes . Dyagilev transferred her at a meeting without apologizing; This was followed by a scandal in the presence of his first dancer Vaslav Nijinsky , the choreographer Michel Fokine and Léon Bakst , while stage renovations were in progress in the theater. Djagilew asked Mata Hari to undress and give a taste of her dancing skills on the stage populated by stage workers. The 36-year-old left the theater angrily, convinced that she would be able to perform as the prima ballerina of the leading ballet group in Europe without any dance training and without sufficient experience in classical ballet .

Every now and then she was able to show her oriental dances in front of a larger audience. On December 14, 1912, she was shown in the performance of Indian Art at the Université des Annales. But her manager Astruc, who had meanwhile become director of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées , turned away from her.

At this time, Mata Hari also tried to establish contact with her daughter Non, but her ex-husband sent her letters back unopened. Finally Mata Hari sent her closest confidante, the maid Anna Lintjens, to Holland . She was supposed to bring Non to her in Neuilly-sur-Seine , where Mata Hari had lived in her small villa since the end of 1911 . This attempt at an undisturbed meeting with her daughter was presented in some reports as a planned kidnapping. It remains unclear whether Anna Lintjes really had the assignment to take Non to another city. In any case, she returned to France without her daughter.

All that is known about Non's further life is that she intended to move to Indonesia in the autumn of 1919, two years after her mother's death, to work as a teacher there. Only a few weeks before she started her trip, however, she died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of only 21 .

Mata Hari traveled to Berlin in 1913 and saw the German Crown Prince during a tour of the city . Their interest was misinterpreted by an observer named Guido Kreutzer as fanatical hostility towards Germany. Kreutzer documented his suspicions in 1923 in the book "The German Crown Prince and the Women in His Life". When Mata Hari asked to dance in front of the German Crown Prince, her request was not granted. So she left Berlin without having achieved anything.

On June 28, 1913, she performed as a Spanish dancer in La Revue en Chemise in the Folies Bergère . In the Gaumont cinema she showed her dance for the god Shiva for the last time . The zenith of her dance career had already passed. After three appearances at the Musée Galliera in January 1914, she told a Vogue journalist that she was preparing a sensational comeback. She traveled back to Berlin and telegraphed Émile Guimet at the end of February asking whether she could restore her success with Egyptian dances. His reply of March 9, 1914 was telling: "Doing the most expensive Egyptian ballet is an excellent idea, provided it is really Egyptian."

Last years

Outbreak of war

Mata Hari (around 1909)

In May 1914 Mata Hari succeeded in establishing contact with the Berlin Metropol Theater , where she was to appear in the opera Der Millionendieb for six months from September of the same year . This engagement did not materialize, however, since the First World War broke out on July 28, 1914 .

She then left Germany at the beginning of August 1914, as it was too dangerous for her as a foreigner without valid residence papers to stay there at the start of the war. Certainly she also fled from creditors and unpaid bills, but not from spies or charges by the Entente , as was later alleged. At first she tried to return to Paris via Switzerland , which was unsuccessful because she did not have an exit visa . She was sent back to Berlin at the Swiss border. There she managed to get a ticket for a train to Amsterdam , where she rented a room at the Victoria Hotel on Dam Square after her arrival and soon had a brief affair with the banker Will van der Schalk, to whom she presented herself as a Russian émigré issued. He ended the relationship when their true identity was revealed. Engagements were now almost completely absent - in the war year 1914 she could only be seen again in the Royal Theater of The Hague in the ballet Les Folies Françaises - because in the capitals the mass death of soldiers during the war was the main topic, and hardly anyone had the during this phase Shock's interest in seeing an Indian nude dancer.

Mata Hari needed money; she could not maintain her lavish and luxurious lifestyle with the meager income. In October 1914 she rented a small house in The Hague . Probably because of acute financial difficulties, she decided at the end of 1915 to return to Paris via England and Dieppe in order to dissolve her luxurious villa household in Neuilly. At that time she was already insolvent. She was later accused of having made the trip to make important inquiries about the French preparations for a new offensive, but this is unanimously doubted by her biographers. Dr. Bizard, a Paris prefectural doctor, claims to have seen her repeatedly in the city's better hour hotels during those weeks. In any case, in March 1916 she was back in The Hague and brought extensive belongings with her from Neuilly.

At that time, Mata Hari is said to have met the 21-year-old Russian officer Vladimir (Vadim) Masloff. The nature of their relationship has been the subject of much discussion in the post-war period. Mata Hari is said to have entered into a relationship with the Russian despite the 18 year age difference. After Masloff was ordered back to the front, he is said to have lost an eye in the battle. The cost of treating this war wound was later cited by some of Mata Hari's biographers as a possible motive for spying. While this thesis was mainly represented by French biographers, the German author Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg clearly refers the story to the realm of legends. According to his research, Masloff was wounded for the first time in August 1917 - at a time when Mata Hari was already waiting in prison to be executed .

Allegation of espionage activity

In the course of her career, Mata Hari increasingly came into contact with personalities from politics and society . These contacts and information, with which Mata Hari intentionally or unknowingly flirted or gave the appearance to know or to learn much more, ultimately became her undoing.

After she had denied any agent activity for a long time, she finally admitted in one of the interrogations after her arrest that the German consul in Amsterdam, Carl H. Cramer, had offered her the sum of 20,000 francs in May 1916 if she would send information to Germany . She accepted the money, but never gave anything in return.

The espionage allegation was later made by the German major general a. D. Friedrich Gempp exhausted. Gempp, who was Walter Nicolai's deputy during the First World War and head of the army defense in the Reichswehr Ministry from 1921 to 1927 , is said not to have known anything about Mata Hari as a spy. This contrasts with the so-called Gempp report, which was only made public in the 1970s. This 14-part report on the German military intelligence service in World War I, prepared under the direction of Major General Gempp, was first brought to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC by the US occupying forces, and then came to Germany in the mid-1970s and can be viewed in the Freiburg military archive as a machine script and microfilm.

These papers also contain information from former officers of Division IIIb about "Agent H 21", who was Mata Hari. The papers show that Mata Hari joined the German secret service in late autumn 1915. III b boss Walter Nicolai asked Mata Hari to come to Cologne in May 1916 , where, after talking to her, he decided to train her as an agent and assigned her to Major Roepell as a command officer. He had taught her "on long walks on the outskirts of the city the basics of agents", while an expert on secret scripts practiced "chemical writing" with her. This "training" took 7 days. Mata Hari's job was to clarify the enemy’s next offensive plans from Paris, to travel through militarily interesting areas of France and to work with the West War Intelligence Unit in Düsseldorf (head: Roepell) and the agent center in the German embassy in Madrid ( Head: Major Arnold Kalle ) to keep in touch. Then Mata Hari was placed under Hauptmann Hoffmann, who gave her the code name H 21.

Then she returned to The Hague, and shortly afterwards her Consul General Cremer gave her 20,000 francs as start-up capital. In December 1915, H 21 entered France on the pretext of wanting to pick up the furniture she had left behind in Paris when the war broke out, and moved into quarters in the Paris “Grand Hotel”. Through her contacts there, such as ex-war minister Adolphe Messimy , Jules Cambon as general secretary in the foreign ministry and Jean Hallaure , who was now active in the war ministry, it was not difficult for Mata Hari to find out what the allies were planning on the German front. At the end of December she telegraphed Hoffmann “that for the time being, especially now, there is no thought of a French offensive in France”, and then with her household items “in ten packing boxes” - a direct journey by the shortest route was only rarely possible in these times of war - to travel via southern France to Spain, where she was finally able to embark for The Hague.

As early as mid-1915, George Ladoux from the Deuxième Bureau , the second division of the French military foreign intelligence service , became aware of Mata Hari. On the way from Paris to Spain, when she landed in Southampton , she was noticed by the British Secret Intelligence Service authorities , who had already received information about her from their agents in Madrid. Mata Hari was traveling with a passport in the name of Gertrud Benedix . The police found her papers illegitimate and arrested her. Mata Hari was brought to London , Sir Basil Thompson , the head of the British Counterintelligence Service, was brought before and interrogated. She could defend herself, and Thompson, who had extensive experience with spies, believed what she said. It can no longer be determined whether her claim at the time that she was the lover of a German military attaché named Benedix was true. In his memoir , Thompson reports that Mata Hari asked for a private talk. In this conversation she confessed that she was actually a spy, not for Germany, but for France. Thompson fired Mata Hari, but informed the French secret police about the suspicious activity of the dancer.

On January 11, 1916, Mata Hari passed the French-Spanish border station Hendaye , and one day later she was in Madrid. She combined her stay there with a personal report to Arnold Kalle, who immediately forwarded the information in a telegram encoded with the code of the Foreign Office to Cremer in Amsterdam, to whom he had to forward all reports intended for III b. That was the mistake that ended Mata Hari's "agent career" before it had really started, because the British secret service intercepted this telegram and was able to decipher it. Now it was just a matter of routine for the Secret Intelligence Service to determine who it was. London promptly warned the French counterintelligence against Mata Hari. And she was put under surveillance.

In Madrid, she stayed at the Palace Hotel, a hotel whose guests were of many nationalities. Among them were officials from the French embassy, ​​but also German agents. Here Mata Hari is said to have been in closer contact with the German military attaché Major Arnold Kalle. Waagenar writes: “When she arrived in Madrid, Mata Hari moved into rooms in the Palace Hotel. She didn't meet her here, but was the immediate neighbor of a professional sister of hers - a real spy. Marthe Richard (also called Richter) was a young French woman. After she had lost her husband in the war right from the start, Ladoux hired her for this job. "

Marthe Richard was the lover of the German naval attaché, Corvette Captain Hans von Krohn. In her autobiography, Marthe Richard describes how she lived next door to Mata Hari. ("Marthe Richard himself clearly describes how little was known in Madrid about Mata Hari's alleged espionage activity. And she should have known about it.") Marthe Richard had only read about it in French newspapers, and no one was in Madrid until April 1917 informed that Mata Hari was a spy. Marthe Richard had no job to shadow her either. When she found out from a newspaper that Mata Hari allegedly had a relationship with Mr. von Krohn, she went to her lover and made a scene for him. Kalle and von Krohn were also frequently confused in later articles and reports.

On her onward journey from Madrid, Mata Hari went to Paris in 1916 and applied for a passport to Vittel . Vittel is located in the Vosges , directly in front of what was then the German western front , and was a collecting basin for officers and men in the French air fleet. The dancer received permission to go to Vittel. There Mata Hari allegedly maintained intimate relationships with French air officers. Every step of Mata Hari was recorded in the reports of the French secret police. She went shopping, drank tea, visited friends, and visited a fortune teller. Even Ladoux could not see any suspicious activity. However, the men who wrote these reports included their own suspicions in these reports. Mata Hari is said to have prepared her departure on two consecutive days. Both times she canceled the alleged departure. According to the agents' reports, the ships they should have used were torpedoed and sank. It can be assumed that even then these details created a groundless suspicion, which was presented to her as evidence in the later court proceedings and made a lasting impression on the judges. Mata Hari left Vittel after a short time and went back to Paris.

However, what had been determined so far was insufficient for an arrest. It was clear that she dealt with Germans in neutral countries and exchanged encrypted letters with these people . For a possible stopover on a trip from the Netherlands to France, Mata Hari applied for a visa at the British consulate in Rotterdam . After this was refused, the Foreign Office intervened in a telegram (No. 74) dated April 27, 1916 at the Home Office . The reply sent six days later should have made it clear to Mata Hari that she had to reckon with further inconvenience (“The authorities have their reasons why the admission of the lady mentioned in her 74 in England is undesirable”).

At that time, the British secret service had dealt in detail with their activities because of Mata Hari's contacts with German diplomats in the Netherlands. The British eventually reported their suspicions to the Second Office of the French War Ministry. Its director, Major George Ladoux, set a trap for Mata Hari in December 1916. He gave the dancer the names of six Belgian agents whom she should visit. Five of them were suspected of delivering misleading reports, the sixth worked for France and Germany . Two weeks after Mata Hari left Paris for Spain , the latter was shot dead by the Germans, while the other five agents remained unmolested. For Ladoux, this was proof that she had revealed the names of the spies to the German military authorities. They waited for their return to France to be arrested and at the same time monitored the transcripts of all reports that went from Madrid to Germany. At the German embassy in December 1916 she had a conversation with the military attaché Arnold Kalle (1873-1959). After Mata Hari's departure from Madrid, he had sent an encrypted telegram to Department IIIb of the General Staff in Berlin.

Ten days after this incident, a report from the German embassy in Madrid was intercepted. The message read: “Agent H21 arrived in Madrid. Was hired by the French but sent back to Spain and is now asking for money and further instructions. ”The answer from Germany was:“ Instruct them to return to France and continue their work. She will receive a check of 5000 francs from Kramer Comptoir d'Escompte. ”On January 3, 1917, Mata Hari arrived in Paris. Despite the alleged evidence, it took a long time to make an arrest. Mata Hari was able to calmly withdraw and spend the money Major Ladoux had paid her for her trip to Spain.

arrest

Mata Hari on the day of the arrest, February 13, 1917

On the morning of February 13, 1917, she was arrested in her hotel room by Police Commissioner Priolet and brought before the court-martial examining magistrate, Captain Pierre Bouchardon. She was taken to the Saint-Lazare women's prison as a remand prisoner .

After two days in a normal solitary cell, she was transferred to the famous cell 12. Even before Mata Hari, well-known suspects such as Henriette Caillaux , the murderess of Figaro's editor-in-chief Gaston Calmette , or Félix Faures mistress Marguerite Steinheil were housed here. Mata Hari lived in this cell with her guardian, the nun Sister Leonide. Fifty nuns from the Order of Marie-Joseph du Dorat held this office of overseer in Saint-Lazare. Apart from clergymen, doctors, lawyers and their lawyer, no one else had access to the dancer's cell. However, despite her arrest, her creditors persecuted her and sent her bills and reminders to prison.

process

It was not until July 24, 1917, five months after Mata Hari's arrest, that the indictment was finalized. The trial began the same day at the Paris Palace of Justice and should only last a day and a half. The date had not been made public, but around 150 people appeared to be listeners. After the opening of the proceedings, at the request of the public prosecutor, due to the threat to the security of the country, it was decided to expel the public and the room was cleared.

The presiding judge of the French military tribunal was Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Ernest Somprou, former commander of the Garde républicaine , supported by six assessors. The judges were professional soldiers, not lawyers, and there was no jury as lay judges . The prosecutor was Lieutenant André Mornet, to whom Bouchardon had turned the case over immediately before the charges were brought. George Ladoux from the Deuxième Bureau was also present throughout the trial, although he was not a member of the court. He had set her up, tried to recruit her as a spy "for the French cause" and finally arrested her. The presiding judge ordered his presence to clarify individual points and, if necessary, to give evidence. The clerk was Lieutenant Mornet, assisted by his adjutant, Lieutenant Rivière.

Mata Hari was the respected lawyer in artistic circles lawyer Eduart Clunet, who had represented many well-known actors in court. Whether he was, as is often claimed, a former lover of Mata Hari cannot be proven; that he was still very fond of Mata Hari personally, even in love with her like a schoolboy, was obvious. At the time of Mata Hari's indictment, he was 74 years old and had never appeared before a court martial. In his defense, he particularly emphasized the human aspects of Mata Hari's life, which as a weak woman was dependent on support, and tried to counter the suspicions of the prosecution with these explanations. Clunet is said to have often lapsed into emotionally charged speeches and neglected to invalidate the charges by providing solid evidence or testimony.

During the trial, Mata Hari was accused of being an admirer of Germany because - which was not unusual for a Dutch woman - she spoke German and had spent her honeymoon in Wiesbaden instead of Paris or Venice . To make matters worse, she danced in front of diplomats and officers , invited them to her city villa in Paris, gladly accepted gifts of money and maintained good contacts with the press. Since she was clumsy with her private finances all her life, she was dependent on financial support. She was therefore happy to receive presents, regardless of the nationality of her patron . In her role as an artist, she also had to maintain good contacts with the press in order to get reports that were as positive as possible. Mata Hari owned several adhesive tapes with all the newspaper articles published about her and also kept personal invitation cards.

Whether Mata Hari even had the opportunity to pass on crucial information to the German defense could not be clarified at the time and can still be doubted today. The trial was therefore unable to produce any real evidence of their now undisputed espionage activity. Although Major Ladoux knew that Marthe Richard could have exonerated the accused, she was neither questioned nor named as a witness. During the entire process, only one of Mata Hari's numerous former patrons, admirers and admirers dared to testify in court as a witness of repute. According to Waagenaar, the identity of this man, who occupied “one of the highest positions” in France, had to remain a secret at his own request. In his testimony, he only affirmed that his connection to Mata Hari was purely private. Accordingly, his appearance hardly impressed the judges, since with any other statement he would also have accused himself of passing on information that might be of importance to the war effort.

During the hearing, the prosecution also presented some documents from the dancer's correspondence with a French minister . All letters were signed “My”. My - so the court - referred to either the former interior minister Louis Malvy or the war minister Adolphe Pierre Messimy, who also left office . However, Mata Hari claimed that the correspondence was purely private and that, for reasons of discretion, she insisted on keeping the name of the person who wrote the letter secret. Her steadfastness in not naming the author of the letters only corroborated the judges' suspicions. They refrained from subjecting both ex-ministers to an embarrassing testimony in court. However, Mata Hari's intimate relationship with a high-ranking politician cast a bad light on her from the start. The actual author of the letters was not revealed until 1926 after a heated debate in the French parliament . Shortly after Louis Malvy indignantly denied all allegations and finally had to be carried unconscious from the hall, General Messimy made a public statement admitting correspondence with Mata Hari and his wish to start an affair with her. He insisted, however, that the content of the letters was completely harmless and private and could in no way be used for espionage purposes.

According to the morals prevailing at the time, a divorced woman who danced undressed in front of an audience was to be classified as immoral. The verdict was then also preceded by a plea by Bouchardon, who portrayed Mata Hari as an extremely shady person.

“... whose language skills, countless connections, considerable intelligence and innate or acquired immorality only contribute to making them suspect. Without scruples and used to using men, she is the type of woman who is predestined to be a spy. "

- Captain Pierre Bouchardon, examining magistrate at the court-martial

The main charge brought by the prosecution as conclusive evidence of their dual espionage activities was that Mata Hari was recruited by French intelligence and then went to see the six agents mentioned. During the trial she was asked why one of the agents had been shot if she had not given their name to the Germans. Her acceptance of it was her death sentence at the same time. Since she wrongly assumed that the information was "out of date", she admitted forwarding the names for money.

The military court found Mata Hari guilty of espionage for Germany and thus of high treason . On July 25, she was sentenced to death for double espionage and high treason .

the execution

Vincennes Castle

On October 15, 1917, at 6:15 a.m., Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod was shot dead by a firing squad of twelve in the fortifications of Vincennes Castle near Paris. As was customary in France at the time, those sentenced to death were not informed in advance of the date of their execution . Mata Hari only found out about her fate an hour before the scheduled execution date. In the prison director's office she was allowed to write three farewell letters and give them to the director. The first letter was addressed to her daughter, the second to Masloff, and the third to the unknown witness . It is not known whether these letters ever reached their addressees. The whereabouts of all three documents is still unclear.

She refused to wear the blindfold, which is mandatory for executions . Since she did not want to be tied to the stake, only a rope that was connected to the stake was loosely wrapped around her waist . Allegedly, only one shot of the fired volley was fatal, but it hit the heart. Another shot shattered her knee. In some biographies it is reported that of the twelve shots fired, eleven hit Mata Hari. A non-commissioned officer last shot her in the head from close range .

Mata Hari is said to have addressed her last words to the commanding officer: “Monsieur, thank you.” Also the quote “Death is nothing, not even life for that matter. To die, to sleep, to disappear into nowhere, what does that matter? Everything is just an illusion! ”Is attributed to her in this context. There are numerous other anecdotes about her execution , all of which belong to the realm of myth . Mata Hari is said to have smiled in front of the firing squad, threw kisses to the soldiers or undressed in front of them. It was finally rumored that she had not died at all. Mata Hari had the firing squad bribed, was still alive and had escaped from prison with a young French officer. When the order to fire was given, she said she opened her fur coat, which she was wearing on her bare skin, and the soldiers all shot. According to another rumor, she sank, but was not dead, because the bribed shooting peloton only had blank cartridges in its rifles. A Russian prince put her on his white horse after the mock execution and disappeared with her in the morning mist.

Post-story

Since no one claimed Mata Hari's body or volunteered to pay for a funeral , her body was donated to the Sorbonne Medical School . Allegedly, her head was dissected and exhibited in the Paris Museum of Anatomy ( Musée d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière , usually referred to as the Orfila Museum for short), from which it disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the 1950s. When the museum was threatened with closure in 2000, Le Figaro published a list of all skulls ever exhibited in the museum, which also included Mata Hari's name. The story of the stolen head is largely based on a communication from the French professor Paul de Saint-Maur, who wants to remember that, as a young medical student, he saw in the faculty the preparation of a red-haired woman's head, which everyone has called Mata Hari's head. However, documents from that time only showed the admission of the corpse. The fact that Mata Hari was black-haired and never had red hair leaves further doubts as to the truth of this story.

Truth-finding attempts and rehabilitation

Until Sam Waagenaar began writing a biography of the Margaretha Geertruida Cell in the 1960s, no one had made any serious attempt to uncover the truth. It was assumed as proven that Mata Hari was an extremely dangerous spy in the service of the Germans, who the French had rightly executed. Waagenaar, on the other hand, came to the "almost one hundred percent" conviction of her innocence after months of research in his first book. Although she undoubtedly spied or "at least tried to spy", this was more "a dangerous child's game, a kind of banter" in matters of espionage. She was "never able to discover anything essential" and did not give the Germans any information of importance.

The French historian and Resistance member Léon Schirmann also spent years studying the circumstances of Mata Hari and wrote two books about her, in 1994 L'affaire Mata Hari. Inquête sur une machination ("The Mata Hari affair. Investigation of a plot") and 2001 Mata Hari - Autopsy d'une machination ("Mata Hari - Autopsy of a plot"). In his opinion, she was "abused for an anti-German campaign". They just wanted to "enjoy life" and did not notice in time that with the beginning of the First World War "nothing was like before". Their exposure had come about through manipulations by the German military attaché in Madrid; The French counterintelligence had long known that the dancer was unable to provide any important information.

By comparing contemporary documents, the members of the Leeuwarder Mata-Hari working group came to the conclusion that the dancer had only been a plaything for various secret services and had to die because of her knowledge of possibly compromising details about high-ranking politicians:

“Mata Hari wasn't a born spy. They were used for the anti-German war campaign. She was just a woman who wanted to enjoy life and who hadn't understood that nothing would be the same with the war. "

- Léon Schirmann

"Mata Hari was wrong, she took money from the Germans, but she never really spied, neither for the Germans nor for the French."

- Gerk Koopmans, chairman of the Leeuwarder Mata-Hari working group

In autumn 2001, the Mata Hari Foundation, the city of her birth, submitted an application to the French Ministry of Justice with over 1,000 pages of documents to revise her process to prove that Mata Hari was the victim of a judicial murder - like two previous ones Applications - rejected.

A real overview of the events and evidence - in one direction or the other - was hoped to be gained from the French court files. These were released in 2017, 100 years after the decision of the French War Ministry. The extensive previously published literature is to be used with the greatest caution.

reception

The Mata Hari myth

Shortly after her death, Mata Hari became a myth. Her person was considered to be the embodiment of a courtesan or the femme fatale . Others see her as the Indian temple baaders and shameless nude dancers. This distortion of her person is based not least on the numerous versions of her life story and the discussion about their truthfulness. The fact that she appeared almost naked in front of the audience at the end of her dances not only encouraged her success, but also encouraged assumptions about her "immorality". There has been a lot of speculation about affairs with prominent men.

In retrospect, however, Mata Hari cannot be called a “master spy”, a “nefarious courtesan” or even a “Bajadere”. These names came about shortly after their trial and were later spread through publications. In her day Mata Hari was without question famous as an exotic or Indian dancer. She owed her worldwide fame to the fact that she combined exotic, erotic and espionage in her person. “Your successes for the German intelligence service were deliberately or negligently overestimated in the judgment of the French. Waagenaar showed in an impressive presentation that Mata Hari was wrongly sentenced to death. "

Just as she constantly reinvented herself throughout her life, her biographers often crossed the line between fact and fiction. Perhaps the most absurd story was invented by Kurt D. Singer ( Spies who changed history ) when he rumored that Mata Hari's daughter Non was taken away as one of many hostages by North Koreans in 1950 during the Korean War . She was accused of spying for United Nations forces in the United States and sentenced to death. This story is still circulating today, for example on a CD from the German Probst Verlag.

The author Paulo Coelho has recently let Mata Hari tell her own story in a (biographical) novel, in a fictional letter to her lawyer Clunet, who then replies. With the references it contains to the French and British files, for example, this novel is more suitable for confronting the myth, around 100 years after the execution of Mata Hari.

Hometown

Statue of Mata Hari in her place of birth Leeuwarden on Korfmakerspijp, not far from the house where she was born

A Mata Hari collection with a permanent exhibition has existed in the Leeuwarder Fries Museum (Frisian Museum) since the 1990s , as well as a Mata Hari Foundation , which aims to rehabilitate Mata Hari. The Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden is also in possession of various documents. The plan was to house the Mata Hari collection in the house on Grote Kerkstraat where Mata Hari grew up. Leeuwarden's parliamentarian Albert Oostland argued against the city of Leeuwarden's plans to set up a Mata Hari Museum.

For decades, Leeuwarden and its residents had a hard time with the city's most famous daughter. Quite a few are embarrassed by their “wicked life” and their violent end up to the present day. It was not until 2002 that the Mata Hari collection was bequeathed the poetry album by Grietje de Hoo , which contains a poem by classmate Margarethezell. It took so long because some family members were ashamed of the friendship between the two twelve-year-olds. Grietje and Margaretha would have sat next to each other in the court school and then kept in contact for years. Grietje de Hoo died of pneumonia in 1904 - a year before Mata Hari celebrated her first successes as an exotic dancer in Paris.

A larger-than-life statue has been erected in Leeuwarden not far from her birthplace on Korfmakerspijp since 1976 . In 2001 the square opposite the Leeuwarder Theater was named De Harmonie in Mata Hariplein .

The Mata Hari Foundation and its Dutch hometown Leeuwarden are working hard to rehabilitate Margaretha Geertruida. On October 15, 2001, the anniversary of her execution, a lawyer filed a revision of the 1917 death sentence of the French Military Court with the French Ministry of Justice.

In October 2013, the house where she was born was damaged by a major fire. The walls were badly but repairable damaged by fire water, heat and smoke from the nearby burned-out building. It was then restored and brought back in the nineteenth century style.

The house where he was born during the restoration in 2016

Film adaptations

Mata Hari's eventful life story has been filmed several times, but always as a free narrative. By far the best-known implementation of the theme dates back to 1931, with Greta Garbo in the lead role, directed by George Fitzmaurice . The film was based on Thomas Coulson's book Mata Hari, courtesan and spy . The elaborate four-part TV series Mata Hari (Netherlands 1981) is considered the most expensive production in the history of Dutch television. A film adaptation of the life story of Mata Hari by Martha Fiennes ( Chromophobia ) with the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese in the lead role, which has been planned since 2007 , has not yet been realized.

• 1920: Mata Hari , Germany, director: Ludwig Wolff , main role: Asta Nielsen
• 1927: Mata Hari , the red dancer , Germany, director: Friedrich Fehér , leading role: Magda Sonja
• 1931: Mata Hari , USA, director: George Fitzmaurice , leading role: Greta Garbo - published by Warner Home Video, Hamburg as VHS (2001, 85 min.) And DVD (2005, 89 min.)
• 1964: Mata Hari, Agent H. 21 , France / Italy, director: Jean-Louis Richard , leading role: Jeanne Moreau
• 1966: Der Fall Mata Hari (TV production), Germany, director: Paul Verhoeven , leading role: Louise Martini , script: Sam Waagenaar (Mata Haris biographer)
• 1981: Mata Hari (TV miniseries), Netherlands, written and directed by John van de Rest , leading role: Josine van Dalsum
• 1985: Mata Hari , USA, directed by Curtis Harrington , leading role: Sylvia Kristel
• 2003: Mata Hari, la vraie histoire (TV production), France, director: Alain Tasmam , leading role: Maruschka Detmers
• 2016: Mata Hari (TV miniseries), Russia, director: Dennis Berry , leading role: Vahina Giocante
• 2017: Mata Hari - Tanz mit dem Tod , Germany, director: Kai Christiansen , script: Kai Christiansen, Heike Brückner von Grumbkow , Jochen von Grumbkow , leading role: Natalia Wörner

Stage works

• Jerome Coopersmith

wrote the musical Mata Hari for Broadway in the 1960s , the music was by Edward Thomas and the lyrics by Martin Charnin ( La strada ). The piece, however, flopped in test performances in Washington and was then canceled. In 1995 the York Theater Company produced a recording that also failed. Further performances of the musical did not take place.

• The choreographer Renato Zanella created the ballet Mata Hari in 1993 , which premiered on December 4, 1993 in the Great House of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart with Marcia Haydée in the title role.
• The up-and-coming author Stefanie Taschinski wrote the play Mata Hari , which premiered in Heilbronn in 2001.

Popular culture

Countless productions or projects from film, music, entertainment and kitsch took and still take on Mata Hari's life story, play on it or use her name:

Movie and TV

• In the 1967 James Bond film adaptation of Casino Royale , the role of Mata Bond was incorporated, the daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond and a dancer like their mother. Mata Bond was portrayed by Joanna Pettet .
• In the 2002 film Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra , a character named Mataharis appears who portrays a spy.
• In the American series Charmed , the ghost of Mata Hari takes possession of Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ).
• In the American series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles , Indiana Jones is deflowered by Mata Hari and falls in love with her.
• In the Sketch History series , Mata Hari is parodied in one episode.

music

• In the song Like It Or Not from the album Confessions on a Dance Floor by Madonna the following text appears: “Cleopatra had her way, Mata Hari too. Whether they were good or bad, is strictly up to you. "
• In Song From One Jesus To Another of The Mission states: "And anyway, if it came to a choice, I'd take Mata Hari for my bride."
• Mata Hari appears in the song Shake Your Bon Bon by Ricky Martin : "You're a Mata Hari, I wanna know your story."
• The song Genius by Warren Zevon also addresses her: “Mata Hari had a house in France, where she worked on all her secret plans; men were falling for her sight unseen, she was a genius. "
• Mata Hari is mentioned in the song Besserwisserboy by the band Die Ärzte : "Who exactly was Mata Hari?"
• The band Dschinghis Khan released a song called Mata Hari .
• The Israeli singer Ofra Haza sang a song about Mata Hari.
• There is a song by the ska band Kingpins called Mata Hari .
• The Norwegian singer Anne-Karine Strøm performed the song Mata Hari for her home country at the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 in The Hague, the Netherlands. In the overall ranking she came last with 7 points.
• The Azerbaijani singer Samira Efendi also represented her country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the title Mata Hari
• Hari Mata Hari comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina .
• The song Eye of the Day on Frank Turner's album No Man's Land (2019) deals with the life of Mata Hari.
• The Azerbaijani singer Efendi competes in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song Mata Hari .

Games

• There was a video game called Mata Hari for Amstrad CPC and Atari ST .
• Mata Hari also appears in the video game Shadow Hearts .
• In 2008 dtp entertainment released the point-and-click adventure Mata Hari for PC , in which the player slips into the role of a dancer and spy.

Others

• A pinball machine from the Bally company was named Mata Hari .
• An absinthe is called Mata Hari .
• A Canadian named Joyce Chorney runs a Mata Hari restaurant in Vancouver .
• In Stuttgart , Nuremberg and Zurich there are independent scene bars with the name Mata Hari.

literature

• Anne Bragance : Mata-Hari, la poudre aux yeux . Éditions Belfond, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-7144-3299-9 (French).
• Jan Brokken : Mata Hari. De waarheid eighth een legend . Wetenschappelijke Uitgeverij, Amsterdam 1975, ISBN 90-214-2901-2 (Dutch).
• Philippe Collas: Mata-Hari. Sa véritable history . Plon, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-259-19872-4 (French).
• Thomas Coulson: Mata Hari, courtesan and spy . Hutchinson, London 1930 (English).
• Lionel Dumarcet: L'affaire Mata-Hari. De Vecchi, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-7328-4870-0 (French).
• Gerhard Feix : The Big Ear of Paris - Cases of the Sûreté . Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1975, pp. 202–212.
• Charles S. Heymans: La vraie Mata Hari. Courtisane et Espionne . Édition Prométhée, Paris 1930 (French).
• Russel Warren Howe: Mata-Hari. The true story. Editions de l'Archipel, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-84187-577-1 (French).
• Marijke Huisman: Mata Hari (1876–1917), de levende legende . Uitgeverij Verloren, Hilversum 1998, ISBN 90-6550-442-7 (Dutch), online version .
• Fred Kupferman: Mata Hari. Dreams and Lies ("Mata Hari. Songes et mensonges"). Aufbau-Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-7466-1575-5 .
• Michel Leblanc: L'ennemie de Mata-Hari . France-Empire, Paris 1974 (French).
• Christine Lüders : Apropos Mata Hari (Apropos; Vol. 8). New Critique Publishing House, Frankfurt / M. 1997, ISBN 3-8015-0304-6 .
• Ute Maucher, Gabi Pfeiffer: Codeword: Seidenstocking, The greatest spies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ars Vivendi, Cadolzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89716-999-9 .
• Brygida M. Ochaim, Claudia Balk : Variety dancers around 1900. From sensual intoxication to modern dance, exhibition by the German Theater Museum in Munich, October 23, 1998– January 17, 1999 . Publishing house Stroemfeld, Frankfurt / M. 1998, ISBN 3-87877-745-0 .
• Diane Samuels : The true life fiction of Mata Hari . Hern Books, London 2002, ISBN 1-85459-672-1 (English).
• Léon Schirmann : L'affaire Mata Hari. Inquête sur une machination . Tallandier, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-235-02126-3 (French).
• Léon Schirmann: Mata-Hari. Autopsy d'une machination . Éditions Italiques, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-910536-18-1 (French).
• Pat Shipman: Femme Fatale: A Biography of Mata Hari: Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari. Weidenfels & Nicolson, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-297-85074-8 (English).
• Sam Waagenaar : Mata Hari. The first true report about the legendary spy ("The murder of Mata Hari"). Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1985, ISBN 3-404-61071-7 (former title: She called herself Mata Hari. Image of a life, document of a time ).
• Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg : Mata Hari. Novel of a lifetime . Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 2004.
• Julie Wheelwright: The Fatal Lover. Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage . Collins & Brown, London 1992, ISBN 1-85585-105-9 .
• Paulo Coelho : The Spy . Diogenes, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-257-24410-6 .

Web links

Commons : Mata Hari  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Mata Hari  - Quotes

• Literature by and about Mata Hari in the catalog of the German National Library
• Els Kloek: Cell, Margaretha Geertruida (1876–1917) , published in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (Biographical Lexicon of the Netherlands) as the official biography of the Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (Institute for Dutch History), as of March 13, 2008. (Dutch)
• Marijke Huisman: De legendary Mata Hari. Vereniging voor Vrouwengeschiedenis (VVG), Dutch Association of Women in History (Dutch)
• Denise Noe: The Story of Mata Hari. ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• She was called Mata Hari , Der Tagesspiegel of October 7, 2007
• The most famous Frisian of all time and the most famous Frisian village by Helmut Höge, published in Trend 03/05
• Stuart Jeffries: Did they get Mata Hari wrong? The Guardian , October 16, 2001
• MI5 watched Mata Hari. BBC News January 26, 1999
• Biography, literature & sources on Mata Hari FemBio of the Institute for Women's Biography Research

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thus, the Focus writes on July 3, 2007 in “ Doppelagentin mit Glitzerdiadem ”: As far as her secret service activities are concerned, the “best-known spy” was by far not as successful as with her performance as a “Javanese temple dancer”.
2. ^ British National Archives, "Mata Hari" alias MCCLEOD: Marguerite Gertrude. German spy executed by the French in 1917 , Records of the Security Service, Reference: PF 2917 VOL 1 und VOL 2, opened: 21 Jan 1999, Open Document ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Representing a large number of sources with the same tenor: Waagenaar: Mata Hari. The first true account of the legendary spy. P. 17 f .: "... that she was spying, or at least tried to spy. According to all available evidence, however, their espionage was more of a dangerous child's play, a kind of banter about espionage. That should actually have made it clear to everyone that she was never in a position to discover anything essential and certainly never to give the Germans information of importance. "
4. ^ Postcard from the last year of the war
5. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 7.
6. ↑ Waagenaar: Mata Hari. The first true account of the legendary spy. P. 13.
7. ↑ Waagenaar: Mata Hari. The first true account of the legendary spy. P. 7.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Offer from an antiquarian bookshop ( Memento from November 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. P. 173.
10. ^ Digital library voor de Nederlandse letteren
11. ^ Cell, Margaretha Geertruida (1876–1917) , in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland.
12. ^ Gundula Bavendam: Spies and Secret Services. Available online at Clio-Online.de Topic Portal First World War. ( PDF )
13. ↑ Waagenaar: Mata Hari. The first true account of the legendary spy. P. 46.
14. ↑ Mata_Hari De Jeugdjaren van Mata Hari. Photos en documents uit het leven van een legende municipal archive of the city of Leeuwarden.
15. ↑ Briefwisseling naamswijziging Mata Hari ontdekt
16. ↑ She called herself Mata Hari ( Memento from December 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesspiegel from October 7, 2007.
17. ↑ Leeuwarden Municipal Office
18. ^ In the biography of the Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis Els Kloek: Cell, Margaretha Geertruida (1876–1917) , a divorce in 1890 is mentioned; the Leeuwarder Historisch Centrum, however, expressly denies this with a view to the data in the municipal archive [1] .
19. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 14.
20. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , pp. 48/49.
21. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 49.
22. ↑ ^{a b} Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 10.
23. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 51.
24. ↑ In 1968 a book about his educational achievements by T. Wartena was published in the Netherlands: Wijbrandus Haanstra, 1841-1925. Een the pioneers from het kleuteronderwijs in Nederland. OCLC 16067125
25. ↑ With Indië does not mean India what Dutch: India means but Indonesia.
26. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 11.
27. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 56.
28. ↑ ^{a b c} Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 12.
29. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 63.
30. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 66.
31. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 34.
32. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 67.
33. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 13 (Huisman was given a look at the archive of the Mata Hari Foundation, which contains parts of the spouses' correspondence.)
34. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 72.
35. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 48.
36. ↑ ^{a b} Pat Shipman: Femme Fatale: A Biography of Mata Hari: Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari. Weidenfels & Nicolson, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-297-85074-8 .
37. ^ ^{A b} Tim Rayborn, Abigail Keyes: Weird Dance: Curious and Captivating Dance Trivia . Skyhorse, 2018, ISBN 978-1-5107-3104-2 , pp. 158-159.
38. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , pp. 77–79.
39. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 55.
40. ↑ According to the then valid Dutch Civil Code, the "separation of table and bed" abolished the obligation of the married couple to live together. An application for divorce had to be filed within three years.
41. ↑ ^{a b} Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 14.
42. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 83.
43. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 59.
44. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 60.
45. ↑ DER SPIEGEL Zeitgeschichten, calendar sheet from October 15, 1917
46. ↑ ^{a b} Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 23.
47. ^ Enrique Gómez Carrillo: Mata Hari. The secret of her life and her death. C. Weller 1927, p. 40.
48. ↑ ^{a b c} Curt Riess: Processes that moved our world. P. 240.
49. ↑ Waagenaar reports about a dozen of these versions of her self-invented legend in his First True Report on the legendary spy .
50. ^ Charles S. Heymans: La vraie Mata Hari - Courtisane et Espionne.
51. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 66.
52. ↑ Jan Brokken : Mata Hari: De waarheid achter een legende. P. 132.
53. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 85.
54. ^ "The King", edition of February 4, 1905, quoted in Waagenaar, p. 85.
55. ↑ It is unclear whether the image was retouched by the unknown photographer or whether Mata Hari was wearing a stocking-colored bodysuit .
56. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 17f.
57. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 14/15.
58. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , pp. 98-101.
59. ↑ ^{a b} Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 15.
60. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 124.
61. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. P. 88.
62. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 23.
63. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 35.
64. ↑ ^{a b} Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. P. 97.
65. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 36.
66. ↑ Olivier Marmin: Diagonales de la danse. L'Harmattan 1997. ISBN 2-7384-5238-8 , p. 268.
67. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 38.
68. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 16/17.
69. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 39.
70. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 42.
71. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 14f.
72. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 492.
73. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. P. 84.
74. ↑ "Chère Madame, faire un ballet égyptien, c'est une excellent idée à la condition qu'il soit vraiment égyptien." - Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 42.
75. ↑ Huisman: Mata Hari (1876-1917), de levende legende. P. 40.
76. ↑ see inter alia. Waagenaar in various places or Huisman: Mata Hari (1876–1917), de levende legende. P. 40.
77. ^ Enrique Gómez Carrillo: Mata Hari. The secret of her life and her death. C. Weller 1927, p. 59.
78. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 340.
79. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. P. 103.
80. ↑ Waagenaar: Mata Hari. The first true account of the legendary spy. P. 20.
81. ↑ Markus Pöhlmann : German Intelligence at War, 1914-1918 , in: Journal of Intelligence History 5 (Winter 2005), p. 46.
82. ↑ in Freiburg ( Memento from March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
83. ^ Hanne Hieber: Mademoiselle Docteur. Cees Wiebes: In Intelligence and the War in Bosnia 1992-1995. LIT 2003. ISBN 90-5352-742-7 , pp. 91-95 (a report on details of the agent activity of Elsbeth Schragmüller in said Gempp report).
84. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 307.
85. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 309.
86. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 310.
87. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 254.
88. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 242.
89. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 243.
90. ^ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 244.
91. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 258.
92. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 303.
93. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , p. 111.
94. ^ The Best Jail Cell in Paris
95. ↑ Curt Riess: Processes that moved our world. Pp. 240/241.
96. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari - novel of your life , pp. 115–117.
97. ↑ Briand's Week , TIME of March 29, 1926 (English)
98. ↑ Scandal Obliterated , TIME of May 3, 1926 (English)
99. ↑ Waagenaar: She called herself Mata Hari , p. 446.
100. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 119.
101. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 121f.
102. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 120.
103. ↑ Alan Bisbort: Famous Last Words. Pomegranate 2001, ISBN 0-7649-1738-2 , p. 41.
104. ↑ Mystery of how Mata Hari lost her head (disappeared from macabre museum) ( Memento from October 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Museum Security Mailing List, July 13, 2000
105. ^ Kupferman: Mata Hari: songes et mensonges. P. 122.
106. ↑ Waagenaar: Mata Hari. The first true account of the legendary spy. P. 17f.
107. ↑ Mata Hari. AFP (Agence France-Presse) October 15, 2001, archived from the original on November 22, 2001 ; accessed on December 25, 2014 . 
108. ^ Rudolf Balmer: Mata Hari: double agent and propaganda victim
109. ↑ ^{a b} Egon Boesten: Mata Hari from Leeuwarden: Why you don't want to spend money in the native city of the dancer and spy. ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
110. ^ The Dutch newspaper Trouw vom Mata Hari - September 22, 2001 ( Memento of December 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ( access for non-subscribers subject to charge)
111. ↑ Wencker-Wildberg: Mata Hari. Novel of a lifetime. P. 173.
112. ↑ Alexander Elster: Concise Dictionary of Criminology. Gruyter 1966. ISBN 3-11-008093-1 , p. 153.
113. ^ John S. Craig: Peculiar Liaisons in War, Espionage, and Terrorism in the Twentieth Century. ISBN 0-87586-331-0 . P. 48.
114. ↑ Ernst Probst: Mata Hari: The Dancing Spy ( Memento from May 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
115. ↑ The British secret service file was then made public in 1990, while some of the French files are still under lock and key. compare Paulo Coelho: Die Spionin, Diogenes, Zurich 2016, p. 180
116. ↑ Unknown poem Mata Hari ontdekt in poëziealbum. In: Friesch Dagblad. January 12, 2002, archived from the original on December 25, 2014 ; Retrieved December 25, 2014 (Dutch). 
117. ↑ Nieuwe straatnamen in wijk Zuiderburen gemeente Leeuwarden ( Memento of October 23, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
118. ↑ Jocelyn Noveck: News from Mata Hari: Stripper yes, spy hardly . In: Berliner Morgenpost . October 20, 2001.
119. ↑ Geboortehuis Mata Hari as 'belevingscentrum'. February 3, 2016, accessed June 9, 2021 . 
120. ^ "Ideal cast": Dita von Teese plays Mata Hari. In: NTV.de. November 1, 2007, accessed June 7, 2020 . 
121. ↑ "Mata Hari (1981)" with IMDb short biography of John van de Rest
122. ↑ "Mata Hari: Tanz mit dem Tod (2017)" in the IMDb
123. ↑ Jerome Coopersmith. Archived from the original on August 25, 2003 ; accessed on December 25, 2014 . 
124. ↑ Theater Review: A Fictional Nemesis for a Legendary Spy The New York Times, January 26, 1996
125. ↑ Mata Hari (1995 Revival Cast)
126. ↑ Mata Hari, play with musical interludes
127. ↑ German Asterix Archive
128. ↑ Dschinghis Khan: Mata Hari at Discogs
129. ↑ Mata Hari. In: www.dtp-entertainment.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014 ; Retrieved December 25, 2014 . 
130. ↑ Absinthe Mata Hari www.absinthe.at
131. ↑ Holland News ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 21, 2008 in this version .