By Staff Writer: Jerri Clewis
It’s 1905, and the Parisian elite has gathered to watch a performance at Musée Guimet, where an exotic dancer twirls and glides beneath torchlight that glints off her heavily bejeweled and revealing clothes. Her name is Mata Hari, Malay for “Eye of the Dawn,” and she is an instant hit throughout Europe.
Mata Hari is now a famous name for a very different reason. She is part of World War I history and is widely considered an exotic dancer turned seductive spy who was later executed by the French in 1917, but there is more to the woman who captivated news pamphlets with tales of espionage over a hundred years ago.
Mata Hari was born in the Netherlands as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in 1876 to a wealthy father and mother, but the family went bankrupt by the time she was twelve years old, beginning her lifelong complicated relationship with money. She went on to marry an officer with the Dutch East Indies, but it was a brief and unhappy union due to her husband’s infidelity, alcoholism, and frequent debt, according to the Fries Museum. The couple divorced a few years later when their son died, and Margaretha had no choice but to give up custody of her daughter because of her inability to provide for her.
Determined to get her child back, Margaretha went to Paris to find employment, but failure forced her to take up prostitution in the Netherlands. Rejected by her family and unable to make money, Margaretha returned to Paris to take up the stage under a new name—Mata Hari. She became a famous name across Europe, a stylish and elegant figure who performed in world-famous theaters as famous lovers and admirers showered her with gifts. Then the Germans declared war on France.
War-torn Europe proved difficult for Mata Hari. German banks froze her assets and confiscated her goods. Her performances seemed a thing of a bygone era, and all she had left were her lovers.
It didn’t take long for German and French intelligence to approach Mata Hari. As a citizen of the neutral Netherlands, she could travel freely through Europe, and she already had many high-profile affairs with notable figures. With much-desired funds offered in exchange, she became a spy for the Germans and the French, unknowing of the fate that awaited her.