Biography. Childhood: a girl with an irrepressible imagination

The biography of this brilliant courtesan, spy and double intelligence agent, a clumsy but inventive dancer, not a beauty, but at the same time an incredibly sexy woman still excites the minds of her contemporaries today. Mata Hari, during her lifetime, created many myths around herself, even then - at the dawn of the twentieth century - realizing the power of image advertising and marketing, that is, what modern show business stars use with the same frequency and ease as a trivial toothbrush.

Perhaps that is why biographical sketches about the famous “erotic spy” vary so much that it is difficult to get rid of the impression that they were written about completely different women. The biography of Mata Hari consists of dozens of myths, and only some of them are at least somehow confirmed by archival information.

There is still no clear understanding of who this amazing woman really was and how she influenced the course of history and the events of the First World War, because the documents on the “Mata Hari case” have not been declassified by the French side to this day. And in 2000, it was discovered that the embalmed remains of the “chief courtesan of world espionage” had disappeared without a trace from the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. It seems that even today someone does not want the whole truth about her to be revealed.

Hari's real name is Margaretha Gertrude Zelle. She was born on August 7, 1876 in Leeuwarden, the capital of one of the Dutch provinces - Friesland. The girl was the second child and only daughter of Adam Zelle and Antje van der Meulen. In addition to her, three sons grew up in the Zelle family. The family was quite wealthy - its head owned a hat shop and received considerable profit from investments in the oil industry.

The children attended an elite school and did not need anything, but everything collapsed overnight when Adam Zelle went bankrupt. Financial problems were followed by family problems: the parents divorced when their daughter was 13 years old. And when Greta turned 15, her mother died from the hardships and suffering that befell her.

The father sent his grown-up daughter to her godfather to the town of Sneek in the north of the Netherlands. When the question arose about the girl receiving an education, it was decided to send Margaretha to the south of the country, to the city of Leiden, where Greta Zelle began attending a school that trained future teachers for kindergartens. There young beauty for the first time she realized that she could charm men: she seduced the director of the school.

The godfather had to immediately take the girl away from the epicenter of the scandal. But Greta, who felt freedom, no longer wanted to live in a puritanical environment with a strict godfather: a few months later she fled to her uncle in The Hague. But even there the situation turned out to be too shy and strict, so the 18-year-old beauty decided that she needed to break free.

One day she bought a newspaper with advertisements on the street and carefully studied the column where single men were looking for life partners. The girl's choice fell on 39-year-old officer Rudolph McLeod. As soon as they met, the couple with a 20-year age difference decided to get legally married. There was no talk of any love: Greta really wanted to break out of the “cage” and be free.

Family

Perhaps, at the beginning of her marriage, Margaretha Gertrude Zelle dreamed of a happy family life, but reality quickly cooled her desire to build a home. After moving to the Indonesian island of Java (then the Dutch East Indies), the husband began to go on a binge and openly cheat on his young wife. Soon McLeod turned Greta's life into hell: he blamed his wife for failures in the service, and in a drunken stupor took out his rage on her and two small children.

According to some reports, it was in Java that the future courtesan went into all serious troubles, in revenge on her unfaithful husband, cheating on him with young officers. After one of the domestic scandals, she moved in with a young lover, the Dutch officer van Redes. For fun, Margareta began attending a dance group that studied not only Indonesian traditions, but also national dances.

After some time, the husband persuaded his wife to return. She gave in to his pleas, but soon old life returned: more scandals, drunken stupor and betrayal. The only thing that helped the young woman forget herself was her passion for dancing and immersion in the local culture. According to some reports, it was in Java that Greta first called herself Mata Hari, which translated from Malay literally sounded like “eye of the day.” Legend claims that this is what a woman signed in one of her letters to relatives in the 1890s.

In 1899, the family suffered a terrible tragedy: their two-year-old son Norman died in agony. The cause of the boy’s death is still unclear: according to some sources, he died from complications of syphilis, which one of his parents infected him with; according to others, the children were poisoned by a maid whose husband was insulted by McLeod. The same-age daughter Jeanne-Louise miraculously survived (she died at 21, and the cause of death was allegedly also syphilis).

In the spring of 1902, the couple returned to the Netherlands. There, the family ship finally fell apart, unable to withstand numerous blows to life's reefs: Zelle and McLeod separated. The husband refused to pay alimony to his ex-wife and took her daughter away from her.

Dancer Mata Hari

Mata Hari found herself on the verge of poverty and decided to go to the sparkling lights of Paris in search of work. Later, when asked why she chose Paris, the woman said: “I don’t know, but I think that all wives who run away from their husbands are drawn to Paris.”

Greta tried to get a job as a model, but demanding French artists rejected her candidacy because of her small bust. Then the woman remembered the horse riding skills she had acquired in Indonesia and got a job at the Mollier Circus, where she performed under the pseudonym Lady Gresha McLeod.

The woman, accustomed to luxury, was not satisfied with the earnings, and she began to look for a way to earn more and break into the bohemian environment of Paris. And then she remembered her ability to dance and the reaction of men that accompanied her performances on the island.

Exotic dances with an emphasis on eroticism made an incredibly strong impression on the French. At that time, the concept of striptease was new to the uncorrupted public: it was on this novelty and extreme frankness of performances that Mata Hari made a safe bet.

Her successful debut took place in March 1905 at the famous museum of oriental art “Museum Guimet”. The flexible beauty really pleased the richest industrialist, art connoisseur and museum owner, Monsieur Guimet, who decided to help his young mistress in her career. According to some reports, it was he who came up with the stage name Mata Hari for the Javanese dancer. Her performance among the museum exhibits in luxurious attire from the collection of Monsieur Guimet created a sensation. The erotic dance ended with the complete exposure of the girl, who left only bracelets and a pearl necklace.

The triumph of Mata Hari took place in front of the amazed eyes of the ambassadors of Japan and Germany, as well as selected guests. This night turned out to be a turning point in the life of the courtesan. Greta burst into the bohemia of Paris and firmly established herself in her position. Erotic dances combined with oriental exoticism had unprecedented success among all segments of the Parisian population. The newspaper La Vie Parisienne described the performance of the future “spy No. 1” at the museum:

“Madam Mata Hari learned these absolutely authentic Brahman dances in Java from the best priestesses of India. These dances are kept secret. In the depths of the temples, only brahmins and devadasis can watch them.”

Perhaps this was one of the first legends that Mata Hari and her patron Monsieur Guimet came up with. Many people started talking about an unusual dancer who grew up in Java and was raised in Indian temples, where she learned the art of secret dance. She herself generously “fed” journalists with stories about what she had to illegitimate daughter Emperor of India Edward VII and a certain Indian princess, said that she grew up and was raised by the priests of the temple in Kanda Svani, that by the age of thirteen she danced naked in the temple and the like.

Contemporaries call Mata Hari the grandmother of modern striptease, which for inexperienced Western viewers at that time was something shocking and fascinating at the same time.

The new star of Paris sparkled, eclipsing the famous one with her performances, for whom, after the appearance of Mata Hari, there was only one thing left to do - to go where the new public favorite had not reached: to distant Russia, into the arms of.

Meanwhile, Mata Hari is turning into an elite courtesan, whom high-ranking officials and bohemians in France and Germany considered it an honor to get close to. Rumor has it that in almost every European city Margareta had eminent lovers who showered her with jewelry and money. However, Mata Hari constantly needed money and borrowed money. They say that the reason for this was not only her extravagance and habit of extraordinary luxury, but also her love of gambling card games.

The name of Mata Hari is becoming almost a household name: it appears on the names of cigarettes, boxes of Dutch cookies and sweets, and on postcards. Greta’s impoverished father writes a book about her, which was published in 1906 and is entitled “The Life Story of My Daughter and My Objections to Her Former Husband.” It brought the author a considerable fee, and the dancer even greater fame in Europe.

Mata Hari performs in the famous salons of Paris and three times in the mansion of Baron Rothschild. She experienced real triumph after her performance on the legendary stage of the Olympia Theater. Parisian, London, and New York newspapers write about her, calling her a miracle, a pearl, a plastic genius who influences viewers with the play of her legs, arms, eyes, lips and whole body. Meanwhile, Mata Hari's ex-husband claims that she never knew how to dance, and in general Margareta has flat feet.

In the winter of 1906, Mata Hari received a two-week engagement in Madrid. From there she goes to Monte Carlo, where she was invited to dance in the Massenet ballet. The famous Giacomo Puccini sends flowers to her room, and Jules Massenet falls in love with her.

Espionage

In the summer of 1906, Mata Hari performed in Berlin, where she met the beginning of the First World War. Here she got new lover- wealthy landowner and lieutenant Alfred Kiepert. He invited the beauty to Silesia, where military maneuvers were held in September.

Mata Hari, a citizen of the Netherlands, was unable to leave Germany when it entered the war. Here she is detained several times, suspected of having connections with Russian intelligence. But the woman managed to escape to her homeland, where she lived for several months. The Netherlands seems too boring to the courtesan, accustomed to bohemian life and social splendor: she returns to Paris, where she settles in a house donated by her banker lover.

The life to which Mata Hari is accustomed is crumbling: it is difficult for her to travel around Europe due to the introduction of a travel ban by countries that are involved in the war. Zelle moves between the Netherlands and France, making frequent trips through Spain and Britain, as the two countries are separated by front lines.

French counterintelligence became interested in the frequent movements of Mata Hari, because the German station was actively working in Spain at that time.

The exact time and circumstances of the recruitment of the Dutch dancer are still unknown today. French counterintelligence believed that Mata Hari was recruited before the war. The French first received information that a woman was spying for Germany in 1916. When Mata Hari realized that she had been declassified, she herself came to the French counterintelligence authorities and offered her services.

To test the new agent, she was sent at the beginning of 1917 to Madrid, entrusted with a minor mission. Here, suspicions of espionage were confirmed: agent H-21, recruited by the French (this was the code name Mata Hari received), was ordered by German intelligence to return to Paris. The French received information through radio interception.

Researchers' opinions about the activities of Mata Hari differ greatly. Some consider her to be the smartest woman who carried out active espionage work, skillfully infiltrating the highest political and military circles of the countries with which Germany competed. Others argue that Mata Hari was not a real spy; she led her usual riotous lifestyle, creating an aura of mystery around herself and receiving good money from all parties for it.

Biographers have calculated that the high-society spy had more than 100 lovers throughout her stormy personal life. But many believe that true love Mata Hari had one - the Russian pilot Vadim Maslov, who served in the French aviation.

Mata Hari met him at the very end of her life, in 1916. Vadim Maslov was 21 years old, and she was 40. The handsome young man was the same age as Greta Zelle’s deceased son, but she fell in love with the young man with all passion. According to some reports, Maslov and Mata Hari wanted to get married, but Vadim was sent to the front, where he was seriously wounded and lost an eye. Allegedly, it was to him that a woman in love was eager to come to a front-line hospital in France. For this purpose, she turned to the French military, but they set a condition: to obtain secret data from the German military. Mata Hari agreed. To do this, she was sent to Madrid, where agent H-21, recruited by the French, was declassified.

There is a version that Germany specifically declassified the radio encryption to French intelligence in order to get rid of the double agent.

The love of Mata Hari and Vadim Maslov is most likely another beautiful myth about a courtesan. There is a version according to which for Vadim Maslov “love” with the famous spy dancer was just an affair.

Be that as it may, the life story of one of the most famous courtesans still excites the minds of writers, artists and directors today. Sometimes she is compared to Angelica, some draw parallels with Sofia Pototskaya, Roksolana and Isadora Duncan.

In January 1917, when Mata Hari returned to Paris, she was arrested and placed in prison in Saint-Lazare. Investigator Bouchardon interrogated the woman for four months, allowing lawyer Clunet only for the first and last of the interrogations. She denied her connection with German intelligence, claiming that apart from love affairs with German officers, nothing connected her. But during the investigation, French intelligence was able to decipher several German radiograms, which allegedly contained indisputable confirmation of the activities of agent N-21.

At his trial in July 1917, Mata Hari was accused of transmitting information to the enemy that led to the death of several divisions of soldiers. State prosecutor André Mornet said "the harm this woman has caused is indescribable" and called Zelle "the greatest spy of our century."

The judges sentenced Margaretha Zella to death, although she hoped for pardon until the very end. Clunet's lawyer, who, according to some reports, is in a love affair with Mata Hari, begged French President Raymond Poincaré to pardon his client, but the request was rejected.

Execution

In the early morning of October 15, 1917, prison guards arrived to pick up the condemned woman. The seasoned guards were quite surprised: Mata Hari was indignant that before her death she was not offered breakfast. While she was having breakfast, the coffin was delivered to the prison building. After breakfast, Greta Zelle put on a black velvet coat, a hat, black suede gloves and high-heeled shoes. She looked completely calm.

At the place of execution, at one of the shooting ranges near Paris, a firing squad of 12 people was already waiting for her. Mata Hari asked not to tie her hands and not to put a blindfold on her eyes. She blew a kiss to the executioners and said: “I’m ready, gentlemen.” The woman accepted her death with incredible courage. When she fell to the ground, the non-commissioned officer fired a control shot into the left temple of the lying woman.

None of the relatives expressed a desire to take the body of the executed woman, so it was sent to the anatomical theater. Mata Hari's head was severed, embalmed and long time kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. But in 2000, archivists unexpectedly discovered that the head was missing. They say she could have disappeared in 1954, when the museum moved to a new location.

Movies and books

Who was Mata Hari - a dissolute courtesan, a hunter for the hearts and wallets of rich and influential men, a smart gambler and double agent, a cunning adventurer, or a simple woman with a difficult fate, whose life turned out this way and not otherwise - biographers still argue about this today. And people of art amazing story The life of a spy-temptress, consisting mainly of myths and legends, inspires new creations.

The first film, the heroine of which was Mata Hari, appeared in 1920. The main character was played by actress Asta Nielsen. Later, many remakes of the film drama were made and many books were written, Merlie Oberon, Françoise Fabian, Jeanne Moreau and Sylvia Christel, and others. The historical drama was voiced in two languages ​​– Russian and English.

Mata Hari was not a beauty by our modern standards. Maybe the standard of beauty has changed since then, or maybe she was just an incredibly charming temptress and dancer, and her success was so stunning due to her incredible charisma? I found quite a lot of photographs on the Internet of this courtesan, who traded not only with her, I can’t say beautiful, body, but also with espionage, and Mata Hari was not just a spy, she was a double agent. Having studied enough material, I came to the conclusion that this woman was not smart, cunning or insightful, she simply became a scapegoat, a bargaining chip in someone’s game. In general, being already a forty-one-year-old lady, Mata Hari was sentenced by a military court to be shot. Many historians agree that if not for this loud, resonant execution, there would not have been Mata Hari so famous to this day.

Not long ago, the series was released on television screens in many countries."Mata Hari", where the main role was played by a French actressVaina Giocante. The story of the famous unsuccessful spy is shown to us from a completely different side, the filmmakers ennobled this courtesan as best they could, supposedly she was forced down a crooked path by extreme need and the need to return her beloved daughter, who was literally taken from her by cunning by her alcoholic ex-husband. But how did everything really turn out?

Mata Hari– this is, of course, a pseudonym, this young lady’s original name was Margaret Gertrude Zelle, I won’t go into all the details of her difficult girl life, but she got married without love, responded to an ad, given by a man in the newspaper, her husband was twenty years older than her.

39 -year-old captain Rudolph McLeod he poured it well into the collar, walked left and right, in fits of rage he raised his hand to his wife, but he was rich, he took his wife to high society, bought clothes and jewelry. Rudolf his wife got bored very quickly and he began to cheat on her, but also Margaret She did not lag behind him, did not remain faithful, in general she was not an oppressed sheep.

Immediately after marriage, the couple left for an Indonesian island Java, two years later, first a son was born, then a daughter. The son died when he was two years old, presumably from complications of syphilis, which he contracted from his parents; here, of course, we need to say thank you to daddy. According to another version, the child was poisoned by one of the disgruntled natives. On the other hand, be yourself Mata Hari sick with syphilis, could she have become such a sought-after elite courtesan? Although it is a known fact that by the beginning XX century, 15% of the European population suffered from syphilis! So in those days it was no longer possible to surprise anyone with syphilis.

Margaretfiled for divorce, her daughter stayed with her father. In general, left without her husband’s money, but getting used to a luxurious life,MargaretShe began to think diligently about how she could better get settled in this life, not be in poverty and have fun. Ukativ inBetwell, to begin with, this woman decided to become a model, but since she didn’t come out with either figure or face, there were no people willing to paint her portrait, and even for a fee for the model, with a chic voiceMargoshaI didn’t have it either, otherwise I would have decided to become a singer, all that was left was dancing.

But how could she surprise? Dress up as an oriental princess, dance a passionate dance and definitely take off your clothes! No one has ever done this before; she will be a pioneer in this direction! First in small salons, then in theaters, her fame spread quickly. I don’t even know what kind of fat bags and fat bellies there were who were delighted with this woman. The saggy belly of a woman who has given birth, thick legs, small, flat, loose breasts, big nose, huge arched eyebrows, no special choreographic education. But men are greedy for naked women, I guess.Mata Hari, and this is exactly the pseudonym she tookMargaret, turned them on incredibly.

At twenty six years old Mata Hari She began her performances, was in demand and popular, was constantly supported by someone, and had a lot of men. And they make TV series about such a woman? Movies? And what are the creators of these films promoting in this way? What are women being pushed to do? Or is there no need to push them? Is it in their blood: to seduce, to suck out money, to live at someone else’s expense, to sell their body for material wealth? In general, people love to worship negative characters. Never Mata Hari she didn’t want her daughter back, she wasn’t even interested in her fate. The daughter outlived her mother by only two years.

In general, I was walking and having fun Mata Hari until she was forty years old, until she fell madly in love with a young Russian officer Vadim Maslov, who was half her age. For her it was the last, fatal love, for him a fleeting affair. Maybe Vadim Maslov I was entertained by the thought that he was sleeping with such a popular lady. And Mats Hari money began to run out, her lovers no longer supported her. And then this crazy woman decided to accept an offer that had not interested her before. Espionage, both for the French and the Germans. I won’t go into all these subtleties, I’ll just say that this Dutch stripper didn’t manage to obtain any secret information, and it’s unlikely that she was trying to. I just decided to earn extra money this way, I thought that these were all toys. But that wasn’t the case, it’s better not to joke with intelligence, the First World War is just around the corner, a sea of ​​blood, deaths and mental pain, in general, was sucked into a meat grinder and Mata Hari.

Arrested by French intelligence Mata Hari unexpectedly, a courtesan was imprisoned. For trial Vadim Maslov did not show up, although he could testify in favor of his mistress, he only wrote back that nothing connected him with the spy, it was just a meaningless affair. Mata Hari was broken and destroyed morally, she was no longer afraid to die, she accepted her death courageously, her body was bequeathed to the anatomical theater, that ispathologistsyou could do whatever you wanted with it, so the head was separated from the body. Then the body disappeared, where it was buried, what its fate was - no one knows.

Look at this photo, like this Mata Hari what she looked like when she was in prison.

And this photo shows Mata Hari the day before death. Slim by the way.

This photo shows a wax figureMats HariI don’t understand what’s between her legs, whether it’s a shaggy thing or black panties.

On August 7, 1876, in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden, a girl was born who was destined for a very stormy life and worldwide fame as a great spy. The world knows her as Mata Hari, but her parents, Adam Zelle and Antje Van der Meulen, named the girl Margaret Gertrude. Margaret's father owned a hat shop and at one time successfully invested money in the oil industry, which gave him the opportunity to support his children very well - in addition to his daughter, he had four more sons.

Adam Zelle's children attended upper-class schools until 1889, when their father went bankrupt. Soon Adam divorced his wife. Antje Zelle died three years later, and Adam enrolled his daughter in a school in Leiden. By that time, the girl had managed to turn into an extraordinary beauty, and it was not the pedagogical attention of the school director that drew attention to her. Apparently, this was Margaret’s own fault, because her father immediately sent her to The Hague, where the girl’s uncle, who was distinguished by great severity, sent her niece to a school at a convent.

At eighteen, Margaret completed her studies and dreamed of only one thing - to get rid of the tutelage of a strict relative. The only way to fulfill this dream in those days was marriage. The girl began looking at marriage advertisements in newspapers and answered one of them. The potential groom, thirty-eight-year-old army captain Rudolph McLeod, placed an ad in the newspaper more as a joke, but after seeing Margaret, he really decided to get married. Their marriage took place in July 1895 and was extremely unsuccessful. After two years of living in Holland and the birth of their son Norman, the McLeod family left for Java - Rudolf's new duty station. There, Margaret gave birth to a daughter, Jeanne-Louise, and this, in general, was the end of family life. Rudolph turned out to be a big drinker, cheated on his wife and blamed her for all his troubles. Margaret, disappointed in her husband, left him for another officer and became interested in dancing, which she saw in Indonesian temples. In a letter to her relatives, she first mentioned the pseudonym she had chosen for dancing - Mata Hari (translated from Malay as “eye of dawn”).

Her husband persuaded Margaret to return to him, but did not change his behavior, and she, in order to find oblivion for herself, continued to flirt, simultaneously studying the culture of Indonesia and exotic dances. In 1899, their two-year-old son Norman died. After some time, the family returned to their homeland, where in 1903 Rudolf and Margaret divorced. The husband managed to reserve the right to raise his daughter. Margaret turned out to be completely destitute and went to Paris, hoping to become a model. However, she found a completely different job - she got a job as a rider in the riding school of the famous circus. Monsieur Mollier, the circus director, soon advised her to try oriental dances.

Margaret's debut as a dancer took place in the winter of 1905, in the salon of Kireyevskaya, a Russian singer. Visitors to the charity evening received the exotic beauty with complete delight. Margaret's talent was truly outstanding - the newspapers wrote that she bewitched the audience without even moving. One of the dancer’s big fans turned out to be Monsieur Guimet, a very rich industrialist who built famous museum, dedicated to oriental art. He gave Margaret a performance in his museum, and in March 1905 she appeared to the public in oriental attire, and her dance was very close to modern striptease - by the end of it, the dancer, presented to the audience as Mata Hari, left only bracelets and strings of pearls on her body. Paris was conquered - this year alone, Mata Hari danced about thirty times in its most luxurious salons, including in the Rothschild mansion. Her this biography Almost no one knew - Margaret loved to mystify her interlocutors, talking about her royal origins or saying that she was brought up in a Tibetan monastery.

In the winter of 1906, she went on tour for the first time, receiving an engagement for two weeks in the capital of Spain. Then she left for Cote d'Azur, invited to dance in the ballet by the Monte Carlo opera. Puccini himself then sent Margaret flowers. In August, Mata Hari went to Berlin, where she began an affair with Alfred Kiepert, a wealthy landowner. At the end of 1906 she danced in Vienna. True, at the insistence of the church, the striptease was somewhat refined - Margaret began to wear tight-fitting tights under her clothes. Mata Hari returned to Paris only a year later, breaking up with her German lover. She was already rich, and her fame competed with that of the American Isadora Duncan.

Mata Hari photo

Mata Hari. This woman became a legend during her lifetime. There is no consensus among historians about whether her activities as a double agent were a consequence of her moral weakness and cynicism or, conversely, the height of her acting talent, intelligence and ability to use people and situations for her own purposes.

Margaret Geertruida Zelle, who went down in history under the name Mata Hari, was born in August 1876 in Leeuwarden, the center of the northernmost Dutch province of Friesland, in the family of a hatmaker. She grew up to be a beautiful woman with an excellent figure, big eyes and black hair. She probably had a lot of problems in her youth if her parents sent the 17-year-old girl to The Hague, under the supervision of an uncle known for his severity.

Margaret soon became bored with the care of a relative, and she began to look for a way to live an independent life. For a girl of that time, the only way out was marriage. Looking through a newspaper with marriage advertisements, Margaret chose an officer from the Dutch East Indies who was on leave in his homeland as a possible groom. Margaret "writes him a letter. The very first meeting is encouraging for both sides. The name of her chosen one is Rudolf Maclead, he is almost 20 years older than Margaret and comes from an old Scottish family.

A year and a half after the wedding, Margaret is blessed with a son. Soon the family moved to the Dutch Indies, to the place of service of Maclead the Elder. Life in a new place does not work out. The husband's constant jealousy, the death of his son, the tropical climate - everything accelerates the gap between the spouses. Paris becomes a waking dream for a young woman disillusioned with her family life. Several years will pass, and Margaret, who has become a famous dancer, when asked by a correspondent why she ended up in Paris, will answer:

“I don’t know, but I think that all wives who run away from their husbands are drawn to Paris.”

After a divorce, without a means of support, with a daughter born in Java in her arms, Margaret actually goes to the capital of France, where she intends to become a model. But a month later she returns to Holland. Her career as a model did not succeed for the reason that her breasts were... too small. However, she did not give up and in 1904 she made a second attempt. Now fate is more merciful to her: in Paris she finds work at a riding school at at the famous Mollier circus, here her skill with horses, acquired in the East Indies, came in handy. Monsieur Mollier advised her to take advantage of her beauty and try her luck as a performer of oriental dances, Margaret, who speaks Malay well and often watched locals in the East Indies. dancers, listened to unexpected advice, and this brought her worldwide fame.

The debut took place at the end of January 1905 at a charity evening in the salon of the Russian singer Mrs. Kireyevskaya. The audience received Margaret with delight. She loved to tell the secret story of how in the Buddhist temples of the Far East she was introduced to sacred dance rituals. Perhaps these fantasies also contributed to her success, but Margaret did have natural talent.

Best of the day

At first, she performs under the name Lady Maclead. Her success is growing. The Courier Français newspaper wrote that even while remaining motionless, she bewitches the viewer, and when she dances, her spell works magically.

One of her most devoted admirers was Monsieur Guimet, a wealthy industrialist and great connoisseur of art. To house his private collection, he built the famous museum of oriental art - Musée Guimet. He comes up with an extravagant idea: he arranges a performance of a Javanese dancer among the exhibition in his museum. The names Lady Maclead or Margaret Zelle seem to him unsuitable for such an extravagant atmosphere, so he comes up with the name Mata Hari for the eccentric dancer, which means “eye of the morning” in Javanese. She appeared before the audience in luxurious oriental attire, taken from the collection of Monsieur Guimet, but during the dance she gradually took off her clothes, leaving only strings of pearls and sparkling bracelets.

This day, March 13, 1905, changes everything later life Margaret. Among the selected guests at the performance are the ambassadors of Japan and Germany. At that time, the performance of a naked dancer was a sensation. Soon all of Paris lay at the feet of the lovely Mata Hari.

Margaret: “I never knew how to dance. And if people came to my performances, then I owe this only to the fact that I was the first to dare to appear before them without clothes.”

On March 18, 1905, the newspaper La Presse wrote: “Mata Hari influences you not only with the movements of her legs, arms, eyes, lips. Unconstrained by clothes, Mata Hari influences you with the play of her body.” And here’s what her ex-husband said: “She has flat feet and she absolutely can’t dance.”

In 1905, Mata Hari performed 30 times in the most luxurious salons of Paris, including 3 times in the mansion of Baron Rothschild. One of our own greatest triumphs she experienced it in August 1905 at the famous Olympia Theater. Mata Hari conquered Paris. Here is what the Paris edition of the New York Herald wrote on May 2, 1905: “It is impossible to imagine a nobler production of an Indian religious mystery than has been done here.”

In January 1906, she received a two-week engagement in Madrid. These were her first foreign tours. Then Mata Hari goes to the Cote d'Azur - the Monte Carlo Opera invited her to dance in Massenet's ballet "The King of La Mountain". This was a very important moment "in her career, because the Monte Carlo opera, along with the Parisian one, was one of the leading musical theaters in France. The premiere of the ballet was a huge success. Puccini, who was in Monte Carlo at that time, sends her to the hotel flowers, and Massenet writes: “I was happy when I watched her dance!” In August 1906, Mata Hari goes to Berlin. There she becomes the mistress of the richest landowner, Lieutenant Alfred Kiepert. He invites her to Silesia, where from 9 to. Maneuvers are held on September 12 Kaiser's army. At the end of 1906, Mata Hari dances in the Vienna Secession Hall, and then at the Apollo Theater. Yielding to persistent protests from the church, she is forced to wear tight tights.

A certain enterprising Dutch cigarette magnate produces Mata Hari cigarettes, widely advertising them as follows: “The newest Indian cigarettes, meeting the most demanding taste, are made from the best varieties tobacco from the island of Sumatra.

Having parted with Kiepert, Mata Hari returned to Paris in early December 1907, where she rented a room at the fashionable Maurice Hotel. She became rich and now performs only in performances organized for charitable purposes. Her fame rivals that of the unsurpassed American dancer Isadora Duncan. In January 1910, Mata Hari again toured Monte Carlo. From June 1910 until the end of 1911, she was completely immersed in her personal life. She has an affair with the Parisian stockbroker Rousseau, with whom she lives in a castle on the Loire. Margaret fell madly in love with this man and is ready to give up triumphant performances for his sake. But when Rousseau's affairs began to deteriorate, she left him and rented a villa in the picturesque Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

At this time, her long-time dream comes true - the famous Milanese opera house"La Scala" engages her to winter season 1911/12 The authoritative newspaper "Corriere de la Serra" calls her a master of dance art, endowed with the gift of mimic ingenuity, inexhaustible creative imagination and extraordinary expressiveness. However, despite her triumph on the best stages of the world, the spoiled dancer is experiencing financial difficulties. In the summer season of 1913. Mata Hari performs again in Paris, in a new play staged on the stage of the Folies Bergere. There she dances the habanera. The performances are again being sold out to full houses. In the spring of 1914, she again travels to Berlin, where she again meets Lieutenant Kiepert. March 23, 1914 she signs a contract with the Berlin Metropol Theater to participate in the ballet “The Thief of Millions”, the premiere of which is scheduled for September 1,

But a month before the scheduled premiere date, war begins. The fact that on the eve of the war, July 31, 1914, Mata Hari was in Berlin, and also dined in a restaurant with a high-ranking police officer, would later be used as evidence of her espionage activities in favor of Germany, Mata Hari: “One evening, in At the end of July 1914, I was having dinner in the office of a restaurant with one of my admirers, one of the leaders of the police, von Gribal (he was in charge of the foreign department). Suddenly, we heard the noise of some kind of demonstration. Gribal, who knew nothing about it, came out. me to the square. A huge crowd gathered in front of the imperial palace. Everyone shouted: “Germany above all!”

With Germany and France now at war, Margaret decided to return to Paris via neutral Switzerland. On August 6, 1914, she departs for Basel. But at the Swiss border she faces an unexpected obstacle: only her luggage was allowed to be sent across the border, but she herself cannot enter Switzerland, since she does not have necessary documents. She has to return to Berlin. August 14, 1914 She goes to Frankfurt am Main to obtain a document at the Dutch consulate there for the right to travel to neutral Holland. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, she finds herself in quite a predicament, as her wardrobe is either still in Switzerland or is traveling rather slowly to Paris. She has no friends in Amsterdam and very little money. All her wealthy friends and patrons were drafted into the army, and she couldn’t even dream of getting a theatrical engagement. Despite this, Mata Hari settles in the expensive Victoria Hotel.

Mata Hari: “When I found myself back in my homeland, I felt simply terrible. I had absolutely no money. True, one very rich admirer of mine lived in The Hague, his last name was van der Capellen. But I knew well the importance of clothes for him , so I didn’t look for him until I updated my wardrobe. The situation was difficult, so one day, leaving a church in Amsterdam, I allowed a certain stranger to talk to me. He turned out to be a banker named Heinrich van der Schelk. He became my lover. "He was kind and extremely generous. I pretended to be Russian, so he considered it his duty to introduce me to the sights of the country that I knew better than him."

Van der Schelk pays the hotel and bills. Mata Hari spends several cloudless weeks with the banker. Now she can think about resuming contacts with her longtime admirer Baron van der Capellen. But first, van der Schelk introduces her to a certain Mr. Werflein, who will play a decisive role in her fate. Living in Brussels, he conducts extensive business with the German occupation authorities and is a close friend of the new German Governor-General, Baron von Bissing. Through Werflein, Mata Hari at the beginning of 1915 met Consul Karl G. Cramer, head of the official German information service in Amsterdam, under the roof of which the German intelligence department 111-b is hidden. Mata Hari temporarily resumes contacts with Baron van der Capellen, who helps the 39-year-old dancer overcome her financial difficulties. Thanks to his help, at the end of September 1914. She rents a small house in The Hague, and after a few weeks she manages to get an engagement at the Royal Theatre. But the habit of living large leads to the fact that she constantly lacks money. At the end of autumn 1915 The German secret service 111-b recruits Mata Hari.

More than a quarter of a century later, when the next world war was already underway, retired Major von Repel, who in the first world war headed the center military intelligence“West” admits that he was Mata Hari’s curator. This happened on November 24, 1941. In a letter to a former employee of Colonel Nikolai, and later the head of Reichswehr counterintelligence, retired Major General Gemp, he wrote: “We managed to find Mata Hari through Baron von Mirbach, who, being a knight of the Order of St. John, was assigned to an intelligence officer. The latter recommended N-21 (code number Mata Hari) to the chief of service III-b. At that time I was still working at the military intelligence center “West” in Düsseldorf. and was called by telephone to Colonel Nikolai in Cologne, where the first conversation took place between N-21 and Colonel Nikolai. Both Mirbach and I advised not to allow N-21, who was then living in The Hague, into Germany. But Chief III-b insisted on his own.

Werner von Mirbach, a longtime admirer of the dancer, served on the headquarters of the 3rd Army, which fought in Champagne in 1915. He became aware of Mata Hari's plight and decided to recruit her and make her an agent of Section III-b, given that she moved in the highest circles of Paris. His intelligence officer, Captain Goffman, immediately reported this to the head of the intelligence service, Major Nicolai. Now Consul Kramer, who is already familiar with Mata Hari, is involved in the matter. In his opinion, she will not refuse a well-paid secret service, and Nikolai gives instructions to call her to Cologne. The situation at the front at that time was difficult, and the Germans were afraid of an imminent enemy attack, so they had to hurry. Mata Hari managed to win over the secret service officers, and Nikolai orders an immediate start to her training in an accelerated program.

Major von Repel later recalled: “Later, Mata Hari often told me that she was noticed already when crossing the border in Zevenaar. Among the people accompanying her was a mulatto maid from India, who, perhaps, also played a double role. Chief 111-b sent N-21 from Cologne to Frankfurt am Main, where she was accommodated in the Frankfurt hotel? Hoff." And Fraulein Dr. Schragmuller and I stayed at the Carlton Hotel. I had to brief N-21 on political and military issues a few days in advance. Fraulein Doctor was supposed to determine the time of N-21's trip, and also instruct her regarding the conduct of observations and methods of transmitting information. When we began training in the use of special chemical inks, Mr. Habersack was sent from the intelligence center in Antwerp to help me. Later, the two of us began to teach her the chemical correspondence of texts and tables. At the same time, a conversation took place with the head of III. b. It took place at the Domhotel, near the Cologne Cathedral. Only Fraulein Doctor and I were present. Having received new assignments, we returned to Frankfurt am Main. The senior waiter at the Frankfurt Hoff Hotel had previously worked as a senior waiter in the Parisian hotel. hotel "Ritz". He immediately recognized Mata Hari and, as we found out the next day, in the evening he invited her to visit his home. If possible, I had to instruct Mata Hari outside the city, under the guise of walking, when no one was watching us. . During one of these walks, she said that she probably shouldn’t have gone to visit the head waiter and that this man’s interest in her generally filled her with strong fears. It seems that she owed him some money since her Parisian days: I saw with my own eyes how she handed him the check."

At the end of the briefing, Mata Hari went back to The Hague. Her first task was to find out in Paris the immediate plans of the Allied offensive. In addition, while traveling and staying in areas of military interest, she had to record where troop movements were occurring. She was obliged to maintain constant contact with two coordination centers of German intelligence against France: the West Center in Düsseldorf, led by Major von Repel, and the intelligence center of the German Embassy in Madrid, headed by Major Arnold Kaple.

Soon after Mata's return, Consul Kramer visits Mata Hari. Later, during interrogation, she spoke about this meeting as if it had occurred in May 1916, that is, before her second trip to France: “The Consul learned that I had requested an entry visa to France. He began the conversation like this: “I know that you are going to go to France. Would you agree to provide us with certain services? We would like you to collect information for us there that, in our opinion, might interest us. In the event With your consent, I am authorized to pay you 20,000 francs." I told him that the amount was quite modest. He agreed and added the following: “To get more, you must first prove what you are capable of.” I asked for some time to think. When he left, I thought about my 6 expensive fur coats, detained by the Germans in Berlin, and decided that it would be fair if I get the most out of them that I can. So I wrote to Kramer: "I've thought it over. You can bring the money." The consul came slowly and paid the promised amount in French currency. He told me to write to him in cryptographic ink. I objected that this would be inconvenient for me, since now I would have to sign with my real name. He replied that there is such ink , which no one can read, and added that I should sign my letters N-21. Then he handed me three small bottles marked with the numbers 1, 2, 3. Having received 20,000 francs from Monsieur Cramer, I politely sent him away. you that from Paris I never wrote even half a word to them. By the way, these three bottles, having poured out their contents, I threw into the water as soon as our ship approached the canal going from Amsterdam to the North Sea."

British agents are aware of Kramer's activities within III-b and are literally following his every move. They reported to the London center about the consul's visit to Mata Hari. In December 1915 she arrives in France. She had to travel through England, since Belgium was occupied by the Germans. Having arrived in Paris, she rents a room at the Grand Hotel and begins to fulfill her mission. When meeting with old acquaintances, she tries in small talk to find out from them all sorts of things of interest. German intelligence information. Among her friends are the former Minister of War Adolphe Messimy, and Lieutenant Jean Allor, who serves in the Ministry of War, and finally, Jules Cambon, general secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At night, she also wastes no time meeting many French and British officers. She soon develops a fairly complete picture of the Allies' intentions on the German front. At the end of the year, she informs the German agent that, at least in the near future, the French are not planning offensive operations. This report confirms information received from other sources. Therefore, the German command is preparing the next offensive only at the beginning of 1916.

The German secret service, meanwhile, begins a disinformation operation. She spreads all sorts of rumors and fakes troop movements, creating the impression that the German command is preparing a major offensive simultaneously in Alsace and Flanders. With the help of these diversionary maneuvers, the leadership of the German army manages to hide the preparations for the attack on Verdun, scheduled for February 1916.

From Paris Mata Hari goes to Spain. This trip was of a reconnaissance nature - she received the task of conducting observations at the railway junctions of Central and Southern France of the movement of military echelons and concentrations of troops. January 11, 1916 Mata Hari reaches the Franco-Spanish border station of Hendaye, and a day later she arrives in Madrid. Mata Hari stays at the Palace Hotel and contacts the military attache of the German embassy, ​​Major Calle, to convey information about what she saw and heard during the trip. This information apparently seemed so important to the major that he ordered it to be immediately transferred to Consul Kramer in Amsterdam. The radiogram, as always, is encrypted with the code of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

No one realizes that the British radio eavesdropping service intercepts his report and transmits it to Room 40. Deciphering German radiograms is now not particularly difficult for the British, since Alexander Stsek from the German radio center in Brussels between November 1914 and April 1915. gradually rewrote and handed over to British intelligence the entire code book of the German Foreign Ministry. The British intelligence service MIB can easily determine which agent traveled from Paris via Hendaye to Madrid to report his observations to military attaché Calle. In fact, the intercepted radiogram only confirms the conclusions made by the MIB service that Mata Hari was recruited by German intelligence. After a conversation in Madrid, she returns through Portugal to The Hague, where her old friend, Baron van der Capellen, is eagerly awaiting her.

But Mata Hari wants to return to Paris. Therefore, she applies for a new Dutch passport, in the name of Margaret Zelle-Maklid. On May 15, 1916, she was issued a passport. She also receives an entry visa to France without delay. However, the British consulate refuses her a visa for a short stay in England. In response to a request from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London telegraphed that the Foreign Office has its own reasons why the admission of this lady to England is undesirable. They don't tell her anything about the telegraph response from London. Therefore, she still decides to go to France, but not through England, but through Spain. May 24, 1916 Mata lari boards the ship Zealand in The Hague and proceeds to the Spanish port of Vigo. It is unknown whether she will meet this time in

Madrid with Major Calle. In any case, June 16, 1916 Anday tries to enter France through the border station. But the French border guards, despite her vigorous protest, unexpectedly refuse to let her through. They say the reason for her ban on entry into France is unknown to them. Then she writes a letter to her old friend Monsieur Jules Cambon, Secretary General of the French Foreign Ministry, the second person in this ministry. But the very next day, without even having time to send the letter, she learns that she can freely enter France. This behavior of the French authorities did not alarm her, and she happily went to Paris.

Intending to stay in the French capital for quite a long time, she rents an apartment on the fashionable Avenue Henri Martin. She accidentally finds out that her friend, an officer tsarist army, Staff Captain Vadim Maslov is undergoing treatment at the Vittel resort in the Vosges. This resort is located in a restricted front-line zone, so Mata Hari is trying, through Lieutenant Jean Allor from the War Ministry, to obtain a special pass giving the right to enter there. The lieutenant advised her to contact his friend at the military bureau for foreigners.

The office was located at 282 Boulevard Saint-Germain. What follows is very significant event. It is unknown whether by pure chance, or the French deliberately gave her the wrong room number, or whether she herself did so on the orders of the German secret service, but, one way or another, she finds herself face to face with Captain Ladoux, the chief of French counterintelligence. He asks Mata Hari about her relationship with Lieutenant Allor and Staff Captain Maslov. This turn of events was clearly unexpected for her. She asked: “So you have a case against me?” In response, Ladu said: “I don’t believe the British report that you are a spy.” Moreover, he promised to help with obtaining a pass to the restricted area. Mata Hari was about to say goodbye, but then Captain Ladoux invites her to become a French agent and asks how much she would like to receive for such cooperation. She asks for time to think. Two days later, Mata Hari receives a pass to Vittel. Then she visits one of her friends, the diplomat Henri de Margery, who holds a high position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and asks for his advice regarding Ladoux's proposal.

Mata Hari: “Monsieur de Margery said that tasks of this kind are very dangerous. However, from his point of view and in general from the position of a Frenchman, if anyone is able to provide such a service to his country, it is, of course, me.”

Mata Hari goes to Vittel, where she stays from September 1 to 15, 1916. She spends time in the company of her Russian friend. She understands that in France she will hardly be able to act further without being noticed. The agents assigned to her by Lada do not notice any suspicious actions on her part, in particular, not the slightest interest in the French company located near the resort. air force base Contrexville. There is also nothing suspicious in her carefully illustrated mail. After returning to Paris, she informs Lad of her willingness to be his agent. Ladoux intends to send her to Belgium, so she tells him about her good relations with a certain Monsieur Werflein, a close friend of the Governor General of Belgium.

Mata Hari: “I will write to Werflein and go to Brussels, taking my most beautiful dresses. I will often visit the German High Command. That is all I can promise you. I am not going to stay there for several months in a row and fritter away on trifles. I have There is only one big plan that I would like to carry out. Only one."

She means that by any means she will try to obtain the plans of the German High Command regarding the upcoming offensive. When asked directly why she wants to help France, she replies: “I have only one reason for this - I want to marry the man I love and I want to be independent.” Without undue modesty, she demands a million francs for her work! But he says that this amount should be paid after Ladu is convinced of the value of the information provided. Ladu agrees to her terms, but refuses to pay even a small advance. He recommends that she return through Spain to The Hague and await further orders there.

November 5, 1916 Mata Hari travels from Paris to Vigo. Ladu reserved a cabin for her on the ship "Holland", which went to sea on November 9, 1916. Along the way, the ship calls at the English port of Falmouth. Here, Scotland Yard officers, after a thorough interrogation, arrest her and take her to London on the morning of November 13th. The British arrested Mata Hari, mistaking her for a long-wanted German secret agent,

Clara Bendix. Sir Basil Thomson, head of Scotland Yard, personally investigates her case. Three days later Thomson sends a letter to the Dutch Minister in London with the following content: “Sir, I have the honor to inform you” that a woman with a false passport in the name of Margaret Zelle-Maclead, 2063”, issued in The Hague on May 12, 1916, is being detained by us under arrest on suspicion that she is in fact a German agent of German nationality, namely Clara Bendix from Hamburg. She denies her identity with the said person. We have taken measures to establish the crime. She expressed her desire. write to Your Excellency why she was provided with writing materials." After some time, Thomson became convinced that the arrested person was indeed not Clara Bendix. Now he wants to find out why she absolutely needs to get to Holland. Mata Hari astounds the chief of Scotland Yard by declaring that she is on a secret mission from the French intelligence services. Thus, Thomson learns that his colleague in Paris, despite a confidential warning given to him, has recruited a woman who is listed in the British intelligence files as a German spy.

Ladoux, having learned from Thomson that the dancer had told him about her mission, was extremely annoyed and telegraphed to London: “Completely incomprehensible, stop, send Mata Hari back to Spain.” They say that Ladu additionally told Scotland Yard that, according to his information, Mata Hari was traveling to Holland on instructions from the Germans. It goes without saying that Mata Hari knows nothing about these telegrams and, on the advice of Thomson, goes back to Spain. Here, on December 1916, she is noted at the Dutch consulate, and then resumes her contact with Major Calle and reports her adventures in Ang-itoi. Although she again has financial difficulties, Major Calle this time refuses to help her at his own expense. He radios Consul Kramer in Amsterdam and asks to transfer money for the N-21 to Paris.

Here is what Major Repel, already familiar to us, says about this: “When Kramer read this telegram, he fell into despair and said that all this would end badly.”

Meanwhile, Mata Hari received a special assignment from Major Calle. He wanted her to devote the time she still had to spend in Madrid to the French senior officers stationed in the Spanish capital. The next day, Mata Hari meets Colonel Dunvin from the French embassy at the Palace Hotel. He holds the position of military attaché and “part-time” heads the espionage department in Madrid. She frankly tells him about her adventures in Falmouth, about her visit to Major Calle and reports that she is still waiting for instructions from Paris from Captain Ladoux. In response, the colonel demands that she obtain information about German submarines off the coast of Morocco as soon as possible. Danvin has to leave for Paris on official business, and on the day of his departure, Major Calle sends a note to the double spy at the hotel.

Mata Hari: “In the note he asked if I would agree to have tea with him at three o’clock in the afternoon. He was colder than usual, as if he had learned about my meetings with the colonel.”

From Calle she learns that the French sent a radiogram from Madrid about German submarines off the Moroccan coast. “We know their code,” Calle added. This information and other information from Major Calle, which Mata Hari transmits to the French secret service, does not correspond to reality and is designed only to strengthen her position in the eyes of the enemy. Throughout the war, the Germans had no plans to conduct any operations off the coast of Morocco.

Meanwhile, MatyaHari receives a letter from one of his Spanish friends, Senator Hunoy. He warns her that a certain French agent advised him to end his friendship with her. Three weeks later, when she had nothing left to do in Madrid, she prepared to leave for Paris. Meanwhile, the French radio interception service, which has at its disposal a powerful radio station on the Eiffel Tower, deciphered the radio messages exchanged between Major Calle and Amsterdam: “Agent N-21 arrived Madrid, was recruited by the French, but sent back to Spain by the British and asks for money and further instructions.” . Kramer responds: "Instruct her to return to France and continue the mission." From Kramer, agent N-21 receives a check for 5 thousand francs.

Mata Hari leaves Madrid on January 2, 1917. At the hour of her train's arrival in Paris, Colonel Danvigne must leave from there for Madrid. At the Austerlitz Station, she barely has time to exchange a few phrases with him. The colonel answers her questions reluctantly and rather evasively. Captain Ladoux and her old friend Jules Cambon, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, behave extremely carefully and weigh every word. From her lover Vadim Maslov, who arrived on a short vacation in Paris, Mata Hari learns that the Russian embassy in Paris warned him against continuing any relationship with the “dangerous spy.” After Maslov’s departure, Mata Hari begins to lead a full of entertainment. stormy life as if he wants to forget all the disappointments of the last weeks...

"On the morning of February 13, 1917, there was a knock on the door of her room at the Eliza Palace Hotel. Opening the door, she saw six men in uniform. It was the police chief Priole and his subordinates. He presents Mata Hari with an arrest warrant on charges of espionage. She is placed in the Faubourg-Saint-Denis prison in Saint-Lazare. She immediately submits a petition to the prison authorities: “I am innocent and have never” engaged in any espionage activities against France. In view of this, I ask for the necessary instructions to be released from here. ".

During interrogations with investigator Bouchardon, which lasted for four whole months, only the clerk, soldier Baudouin, was present. Lawyer Mata Hari Clune is allowed only to the first and last of 14 interrogations, respectively on February 13 and June 21, 1917. In the case materials, in addition to intercepted radiograms, there is information about the results of observations of Captain Ladu’s agents, confirmation from the Discount Bank that Mata Hari received money, sent from abroad, her personal documents and evidence of her attempts to return to the Netherlands, as well as the results of an analysis of the contents of a suspicious tube and a bottle of secret writing ink, which can only be purchased in Spain.

Mata Hari: “It’s just an alkaline solution, it’s used for intimate purposes. Last December a doctor in Madrid prescribed it to me.”

The money she received through Discount Bank, according to her testimony, was sent by Baron van der Capellen. The investigator asks: “When you first came to our counterintelligence bureau at 282 Boulevard Saint-Germain, were you a German spy at that time?”

Mata Hari replies: “The fact that I was in close relations with certain people does not in any way mean that I was engaged in espionage. I never engaged in espionage for Germany. With the exception of France, I did not spy for any other country. Being a professional dancer, I could naturally communicate with some people in Berlin, but without the motives that you apparently associate with this. Besides, I myself told you the names of these people.”

In the second half of April 1917. The French manage to decipher several German radio messages intercepted by a listening station on the Eiffel Tower and related to the activities of agent N-21.

Investigator Bouchardon: “Suddenly the whole matter seemed absolutely clear to me: Margaret Zelle provided Major Calle with a number of messages. Which ones exactly? I think I can’t make them public, since I’m still bound by the oath of office. I can only say one thing: they were regarded, especially by ours center, as information partly containing important facts. For me, they served as confirmation that this spy was somehow connected with a certain number of officers and that she had enough cunning to ask them some very specific, and, moreover, insidious questions. Her connections in other circles allowed her to receive information about the political situation in our country."

But Mata Hari continues to insist that in Madrid she worked only for France and lured important information from the German Major Calle.

Captain Bouchardon, investigator: “After all, you could not act otherwise. It became difficult for you to continue living in Madrid and still meeting with Major Calle. Since you knew that at any time you could come to the attention of our agents, you were forced to wondering how you could explain all this if necessary. Thus, in order to motivate your visits to the major and dispel our suspicions, you inevitably had to pretend that you were feeding certain information to the French. This is the basic principle of any spy game. not to take this into account."

The trial began on July 24, 1917, and the very next day the jury sentenced Margaret Geertruida Zelle to death. Hearing the verdict, Mata Hari shouted: “This is impossible! This is impossible!” Clunet, her lawyer, falls to his knees before President Poincaré and unsuccessfully begs the head of state to pardon his client.

Correspondent Henry J. Wales of the International News Service on October 15, 1917, witnessed the last hours of the famous dancer's life: a car at the gate and taken to the barracks, where a team of shooters was waiting to carry out the sentence."

When the car with the condemned woman arrived at the Vincennes barracks, the military unit had already been built. While Father Arboz was talking to the condemned woman, he approached French officer. “Bandage,” he whispered to the nuns standing nearby and handed them a piece of cloth. But Mata Hari refused to wear the bandage.

She stood up straight and fearlessly looked at the soldiers as the priest, nuns and lawyer left... On command, the soldiers clicked the bolts of their rifles. One more command and they took aim at the beautiful woman's chest. Mata Hari remained calm, not a single muscle moved on her face. She saw the officer giving the orders from the side. The saber flew into the air and then fell down. At the same moment a volley rang out. At that moment, when the shots rang out, Mata Hari leaned forward a little. She began to slowly settle. Slowly, as if lazily, she knelt down, still holding her head high and with the same calm expression on her face. Then she fell back and, crouching, with her face turned to the sky, froze on the sand. Some sergeant major approached her, took out a revolver and shot her in the left temple...

Major von Repel: “As for the successes that N-21 achieved, opinions differ greatly on this score. I believe that she knew how to observe and write reports very well, since she was one of the most intelligent women I have ever met Two or three letters that I received from her contained, as far as I remember, not very significant messages, written in sympathetic ink. But I fully admit that her really important reports were intercepted and were not delivered further at all. She was probably engaged in espionage for Germany. , and I believe that her execution by the French, unfortunately, was justified."

Mata Hari (real name Margareta Gertrude Zelle) was born on August 7, 1876 in Leeuwarden (Netherlands) in the family of hat shop owner Adam Zelle. Gertrude was the only daughter in the family; she had three brothers.
Until the age of thirteen, Gertrude attended schools for girls from wealthy families, where she studied French, German and English.

Her father went bankrupt in 1889 and divorced his wife the following year. In 1891, Gertrude's mother died, and her father sent her to her godfather in the town of Sneek. The godfather decided to send the girl to a school for teachers kindergarten in Leiden.

In 1904 she made a second attempt. At first she performed as a circus rider under the name "Lady Gresha McLeod", and in 1905 her great fame began as an oriental style dancer, performing under the pseudonym Mata Hari (in Indonesian and Malay - "eye of the dawn"). According to one version, the pseudonym was invented by her admirer Monsieur Guimet, who built a museum of oriental art to house his collection.

Her debut took place at the end of January 1905 at a charity evening in the salon of the Russian singer Kireyevskaya. The audience greeted Margaret with delight.

On March 13, 1905, she appeared before the audience in oriental attire, taken from the collection of Monsieur Guimet, but during the dance she gradually took off her clothes, leaving only strings of pearls and sparkling bracelets. Among the selected guests at the performance were the ambassadors of Japan and Germany.

Margareta pretended to reproduce real sacred dances of the East, supposedly familiar to her from childhood, and told tales of a romantic nature about herself. In 1905, Mata Hari danced a total of about thirty times in fashionable Parisian salons. In addition, she performed at the Trocadero theater and in the salon of Baron Henri de Rothschild. In August 1905 she performed at the famous Olympia Theater.

In January 1906, she received a two-week engagement in Madrid. This was her first foreign tour. Then Mata Hari, at the invitation of the Monte Carlo Opera, came to the Cote d'Azur, where she danced in Jules Massenet's ballet "The King of Lagorsk". The ballet's premiere was a huge success.

In August 1906, Gertrude went to Berlin. At the end of 1906 she danced in the Vienna Secession Hall, and then at the Apollo Theater.

In December 1907, Mata Hari returned to Paris. She became a wealthy woman and performed only in performances organized for charitable purposes.

In January 1910 she toured Monte Carlo again. In 1910-1911, the dancer had an affair with the Parisian stockbroker Rousseau, with whom she lived in a castle on the Loire. For his sake, she refused to perform, but when Rousseau’s business began to deteriorate, she left him.

In 1911, the Milanese opera house La Scala hired Mata Hari for the winter season. At the same time, she negotiated with Sergei Diaghilev about performing in his ballet, but they were unsuccessful. In the summer season of 1913, Mata Hari performed in Paris at the Folies Bergere theater.

On March 23, 1914, she signed a contract with the Berlin Metropol Theater to participate in the ballet “The Thief of Millions,” the premiere of which was scheduled for September 1, but a month before the scheduled premiere date, the war began.

On August 6, 1914, Mata Hari left Berlin for Switzerland. But Gertrude was denied entry, and her luggage moved into the country in a freight car. She was forced to return to Berlin, from where she went to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, she found herself in a difficult situation, finding herself without things. Mutual friends introduced Mata Hari to Consul Karl Kramer, head of the official German information service in Amsterdam, under whose roof the German intelligence department III-b was hiding. In the late autumn of 1915, the German intelligence service recruited Mata Hari. Her first task was to find out in Paris the immediate plans of the Allied offensive. In December 1915, she arrived in France and began her mission.

From Paris, Mata Hari went to Spain. This trip was also of reconnaissance nature. On January 12, 1916, Mata Hari arrived in Madrid, where she contacted the military attache of the German embassy, ​​Major Calle. The major ordered the immediate transfer of the information received to Consul Kramer in Amsterdam, but it was intercepted British service radio eavesdropping.

After the conversation in Madrid, Mata Hari returned to The Hague through Portugal, and then through Spain to Paris. There, Gertrude learned that her lover, Staff Captain Vadim Maslov, after being wounded, was undergoing treatment at the Vittel resort, which is located in a restricted front-line zone. To get to her lover, Mata Hari turned to the French military authorities, and they set a condition for her: to obtain secret information from her high-ranking German acquaintances. Needing money for Vadim's treatment, the woman agreed.

The French sent her early next year on a minor mission to Madrid, and suspicions of espionage were finally confirmed: a radio exchange between a German agent in Madrid and the center was intercepted, where he indicated that agent H-21, recruited by the French, had arrived in Spain and received instructions from the German station return to Paris. It is possible that the radio interception was specifically declassified by the German side in order to get rid of the double agent by handing him over to the enemy.

On the morning of February 13, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested on charges of espionage. She was placed in the Faubourg-Saint-Denis prison in Saint-Lazare. The interrogations lasted for four months, the last one taking place on June 21, 1917. Mata Hari insisted that she worked in Madrid only for France and lured important information out of Major Calle.

The trial began on July 24, 1917, and the very next day the jury sentenced Margaretha Gertrude Zelle to death. She was shot near the city of Vincent at a military training ground on October 15, 1917.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources