A hundred years ago, a bullet decided the fate of Mata Hari; the French still refuse to revise the trial

Mata Hari, the most famous spy and courtesan in popular culture, was shot a hundred years ago, on October 15, 1917, after what many consider a rigged trial.

Born as Margaretha Zelle, Mata Hari arrived in Paris at the age of 27, in November 1903. She left her native Netherlands and her husband, naval officer Rudolf Mac Leod, who was 20 years older than her. In search of happiness, she tried her hand as a model for painter Octave Guillonnet, but that experience was not positive.

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She then began dancing in private salons under the name Lady May Leod, until she became famous under the pseudonym Mata Hari (Sun in Malay) performing “Indian dances” of which she actually knew nothing. She invented them, thanks to her memories of her stay in the Dutch East Indies, present-day Indonesia, where she lived with her husband.

Thus, Emile Guimet, the founder of the eponymous Paris museum of Asian arts, opened his hall for her famous performance on May 13, 1905, which she began as a Hindu princess and ended completely naked.

This was the beginning of her glamorous life as such performances were rare and punishable by imprisonment. For the entire decade that followed, her seductive dance evoked admiration, and her body ignited desire.

She was a courtesan from the Belle Epoque era who introduced ambassadors, ministers, princes, and generals to the art of lovemaking. Countless stories, many of them untrue, are intertwined around her glamorous and mysterious life.

– Agent H 21 –

After a while, interest in her services declined, and the dancer fell into financial troubles, soon after which World War I began.

Then various intelligence services began to take an interest in her, aware that they could benefit from her numerous acquaintances. She first worked for the Germans, and then offered her services to the French.

In 1915, she returned to the Netherlands. There, in early 1916, in debt due to her extravagant lifestyle, she agreed to have a German diplomat settle her debts in exchange for spying for Germany. Thus, she became agent H 21.

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Upon returning to Paris, she met Captain Georges Ladoux, an officer of the French military intelligence service, who did not trust her from the start. Thanks to her socializing with ministers, Mata Hari believed she was omnipotent. Ladoux gave her several tasks but also ordered her to be monitored.

She became highly suspicious when she appeared in the military intelligence office on Boulevard Saint-Germain during the summer of 1916 to obtain a pass for Vittel, where France was just building a military airfield. She received it, but her fate was sealed.

In January 1917, a message from German services was intercepted that proved H 21 was a double agent. Historians say the Germans voluntarily handed her over, knowing the French would decipher the message.

She was arrested on January 13 in a room at the L’Elysee-Palace hotel and placed in Saint Lazare prison.

The war council sentenced her to death on July 24. Lieutenant Andre Mornet, who was the extraordinary prosecutor, easily secured the death penalty.

Victim?

A few years ago, the British intelligence service MI5 declassified its documents on Mata Hari. The British, who intercepted her on a trip to Great Britain in 1915 and thoroughly interrogated her, claim she did not provide the Germans with particularly important information. On the contrary, the report states that the young Dutch woman considered the German offer merely an easy “extra income.” It is also noted that after her arrest in Paris, she did not confess anything but showered her interrogators with a pile of gossip and rumors.

Wesley Wark, a security and terrorism expert at the University of Ottawa, goes a step further and claims that Mata Hari never knew much about politics.

After the hundredth anniversary of her death, the French should open their archives, and many expect it to show that Mata Hari was merely a “scapegoat” for the multitude of French casualties on the battlefields.

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Historian Leon Schirmann, who died in 2003, claimed before his death that the French authorities staged the trial of Mata Hari and that her testimony was manipulated as needed. In his books, Schirmann argued that the trial was pure propaganda.

Based on Schirmann’s arguments, Paris lawyer Thibault de Montbrial requested a revision of the trial 15 years ago. The request was denied. The Dutch Mata Hari Foundation attempted the same, with the same result.

In the meantime, thanks to her fame, her pseudonym has become synonymous with all spy-courtesans. The life of that fatal woman and ‘legendary spy’ has so far been the subject of 250 books and novels, countless film scripts, and even a Dutch ballet.