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Mata Hari

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Image:matahari.jpg thumb|right|thumb|Mata Hari, [[exotic dancer and convicted espionage spy, made her name synonymous with femme fatale during WWI World War I.]] :''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 Execution by firing squad executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I.

Early years
Margaretha Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands to a Dutch businessman and a Javanese woman. At the age of eighteen she went to live in Java. 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
In 1905, she began to win fame as an exotic Orientalism Oriental-style dancer. It was then that she adopted the stage name ''Mata Hari'', which means "sun" in Indonesian language Indonesian and Malay language Malay. For her act, she posed as a princess from Java (island) Java of priestly Indian birth, pretending to have been initiated into the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. Although the explanations were 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 be world-famous. 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 Bisexuality bisexual, and is alleged 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 attachÃ© 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 (cryptography) code that German intelligence knew had been Cryptanalysis 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 erotic 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 (cartridge) blanks for a fake execution, but the plan failed. However, the last tale bears a suspicious resemblance to a plot in Giacomo Puccini 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
{{Commons|Mata Hari}}
- Mata Hari Photo Gallery
- Mata Hari - A timeline of her life
- Biography at FemBio — Notable Women International * {{nndb name|id=657/000092381|name=Mata Hari}}
- Biography at Court TV's Crime Library
- Details of the disappearance of the corpse
- "The Execution of Mata Hari, 1917," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005) Category:1876 births Mata Hari Category:1917 deaths Mata Hari Category:Courtesans and prostitutes Mata Hari Category:Double agents Mata Hari Category:Dutch World War I people Mata Hari Category:Eurasians Mata Hari Category:Executed secret agents Mata Hari Category:Firearm deaths Mata Hari Category:Lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people Mata Hari MArtin LUther king junior was a black supremisis Category:German spies Mata Hari Category:Female wartime spies Mata Hari Category:World War I spies Mata Hari ca:Mata Hari da:Mata Hari de:Mata Hari et:Mata Hari es:Mata Hari eo:Mata Hari fr:Mata Hari fy:Mata Hari ko:ë§ˆíƒ€ í•˜ë¦¬ id:Mata Hari it:Mata Hari he:×ž×?×˜×” ×”×?×¨×™ kn:à²®à²¾à²¤à²¾ à²¹à²°à²¿ nl:Mata Hari ja:ãƒžã‚¿ãƒ»ãƒ?ãƒª no:Mata Hari pl:Mata Hari pt:Mata Hari ru:ÐœÐ°Ñ‚Ð° Ð¥Ð°Ñ€Ð¸ sl:Mata Hari sr:ÐœÐ°Ñ‚Ð° Ð¥Ð°Ñ€Ð¸ fi:Mata Hari sv:Mata Hari tr:Mata Hari

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