| Mata Hari |
Article Index for Mata |
Website Links For Mata |
Information About ™Mata Hari |
For the Indonesian supermarket/department store chain, see Matahari . Mata Hari was the Stage Name of '''Margaretha Geertruida Zelle''' ( 7 August , 1876 – 15 October , 1917 ), an Exotic Dancer and Courtesan who was Executed By Firing Squad for Espionage during World War I . EARLY YEARS Margaretha Zelle was born in . In the opening years of the 20th century, she moved to Paris where she performed as a circus horse rider, using the name Lady MacLeod. Struggling to earn a living, she also obtained work as an artist's model. MATA HARI THE SEDUCTIVE DANCER AND COURTESAN In 1905, she began to win fame as an exotic Oriental-style dancer. It was then that she adopted the stage name ''Mata Hari'', which means "sun" in Indonesian and Malay . For her act, she posed as a princess from Java of priestly Indian birth, pretending to have been initiated into the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood, which she was not. At the time, with virtually no way to easily track a person's origins if for no other reason than that the technologies seen today did not exist at all then, it was quite easy for someone possessing a flamboyant personality to ''invent'' a ''charactor'', and present it as fact. This was precisely what Mata Hari did, and with great success. Although the explanations and claims made by her about her origins were total fiction, the act was spectacularly successful because it elevated Exotic Dance to a more respectable status, and so broke new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris was to later be world-famous. Her style and her free-willed attitude made her a very popular woman. Also, her willingness to wear or perform in exotic and sexually explicit clothing made her popular. She posed for provocotive photos, and mingled in wealthy circles. Mata Hari was also a successful Courtesan , and had relationships with many high-ranking military officers, politicians and others in influential positions in many countries, including France, Russia and Germany . She was allegedly Bisexual , and was said to have had an affair with the Russian-born U.S. actress, Alla Nazimova . However it has never been confirmed that the two even met. MATA HARI THE DOUBLE AGENT During World War I , the Netherlands maintained neutrality and, as a Dutch subject, Margaretha Zelle was able to cross national borders. To avoid the battlefields, she would travel between France and the Netherlands via Spain and England , and her movements inevitably attracted attention. She was courtesan to many high ranking allied military officers during this time. On one occasion, when interviewed by British intelligence officers, she admitted to working as an agent for French military intelligence, although the latter would not confirm her story. In January 1917, the German Military Attaché in Madrid transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, were able to recognise H-21 as Mata Hari. Remarkably, the messages were in a Code that German intelligence knew had been Broken by the French, leaving historians later to suppose that the messages were contrived so that, in the event that she was working for the French, her French paymasters would identify her as a Double Agent and neutralise her. On 13 February , 1917 , she was arrested in her Paris hotel room. The famous Mata Hari was put on trial, accused of spying and consequently causing the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers. She was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October , 1917 , at the age of 41. DISAPPEARANCE Mata Hari's body was not claimed by any family members and was accordingly used for medical study. Her head was embalmed and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris, but in 2000 archivists discovered that the head had disappeared, possibly as early as 1954 when the museum had been relocated. Records dated from 1918 show that the museum also received the rest of the cadaver but none of the remains could later be accounted for. RUMOURS The fact that a former exotic dancer had been executed as a spy immediately provoked many rumours. One is that she blew a kiss to her executioners, although it is more likely that she blew a kiss to her lawyer, who was a witness to the execution and a former lover of hers. Her dying words were purported to be "Merci, monsieur". Another rumour claims that, in an attempt to distract her executioners, she flung open her coat and exposed her naked body. A third rumour had it that Mata Hari was unusually composed at the execution, refusing to be tied or blindfolded — and that this is because the firing squad was to be bribed to use Blank s for a fake execution, but the plan failed. However, the last tale bears a suspicious resemblance to a plot in Puccini 's earlier opera, '' Tosca ''. THE ENDURING LEGEND Naturally, popular imagination was fired by the idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent, using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers. This image has made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the Femme Fatale . Much of the enduring popularity is owed to the film entitled "Mata Hari", released in 1931 and starring Greta Garbo in the leading role. While based on real events in the life of Margaretha Zelle, the plot was largely fictional, appealing to the public appetite for fantasy at the expense of historical fact. Immensely successful as a form of entertainment, the exciting and romantic character in this film inspired subsequent generations of storytellers. Eventually, Mata Hari featured in more films, television series, the Anime series '' Read Or Die '', and in Video Games — but increasingly, it is only the use of Margaretha Zelle's famous stage name that bears any resemblance to the real character. Many books have been written about Mata Hari; some of them serious historical and biographical accounts, but many of them highly speculative. EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|