When was mata hari born

She provided the French with little useful information and may have begun to work for Germany as a double agent.

The French eventually intercepted a German cable that named a spy code-named H, clearly a code name for Mata Hari. The French became convinced that she was a spy and arrested her on Feb. She was accused of spying for Germany, causing the deaths of at least 50, soldiers, and was put on trial in July After a short trial conducted in private in front of a military court, she was found guilty of spying for Germany and sentenced to death by firing squad.

The French executed Zelle on Oct. She was 41 years old. During World War I , Zelle's frequent traveling across international borders and her varied companions caused several countries to wonder if she was a spy or even a double-agent.

Many people who met her say that she was sociable but just not smart enough to pull off such a feat. The notion that Zelle was an exotic dancer who used her powers of seduction to extract military secrets was false. She was years past her prime as a dancer by the time she agreed to serve as a spy for France—and possibly for Germany.

Zelle maintained her innocence up until the time of her death. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. She did not want to have to deceive him with other men, she wrote. Tellingly, despite several meetings, Ladoux never asked Mata Hari for specific information, never targeted a specific man to seduce, and never provided a reliable means of communicating any secrets she learned to him, or funds.

She finally wrote him a letter, sent by regular post, saying she must have an advance to refurbish her wardrobe if she was going to seduce important men. Mata Hari went to Spain, where she boarded the S. Hollandia bound for the Netherlands, as instructed by Ladoux.

The passengers were stopped en route and Mata Hari found herself once again questioned at a British port. Her encounter in Folkestone the year before made officials even more suspicious of her. She was taken to London by agents for further interrogation, which was carried out in several languages. As had happened on the previous occasion, nothing incriminating was found on her.

But Mata Hari became terrified when they decided to hold her, as they tried to establish whether she was indeed Margaretha Zelle MacLeod or Clara Benedix, a German agent whom she vaguely resembled. Desperate for release, Mata Hari confessed on November 16 to being an agent for France employed by Ladoux, whom the British authorities then contacted. Send Mata Hari back to Spain. He would be happy to hear that her guilt has been clearly established.

In Madrid Mata Hari decided to find out what secrets of military importance she could learn there. A German diplomat posted to the Spanish capital, Maj. Arnold von Kalle, became enchanted by her beauty and grace. He soon let slip that there were plans for a landing of German officers, Turks, and munitions from a submarine on the coast of Morocco.

Anxious to relay this information to Ladoux and claim her reward, she wrote Ladoux asking for further instructions. No reply ever came. She also established relationships with Col. Joseph Denvignes from the French legation, who fell passionately in love with her. He grew enraged when she dined or danced with other men.

To calm his jealousy, she naively explained that she worked for Ladoux and recounted all the secrets she had learned. Denvignes asked her to obtain more information about the Moroccan plan from Kalle, but when she did, her questions made the German suspicious. Since Denvignes was shortly traveling to Paris, Mata Hari wrote a lengthy letter full of information and asked Denvignes to deliver it to Ladoux. While Mata Hari was conquering the German diplomats in Madrid in December , Ladoux ordered all radio messages between Madrid and Berlin to be intercepted and monitored, using a listening post located on the Eiffel Tower.

He later claimed the messages clearly identified Mata Hari as a German spy. When the exotic dancer returned to Paris, expecting a reward for the intelligence she had passed on, Ladoux refused to see her. She finally made contact, but he denied receiving any communication through Denvignes. Seemingly, Ladoux was the only person to have seen the original messages prior to their decoding and translation. It also transpired that the original messages had disappeared from the files.

Even so, the content of these messages were about to be used with devastating effect against the dancer. Later, Ladoux would himself be arrested on espionage charges—but his detention came several days too late to save Mata Hari.

By late January Mata Hari was becoming frantic. Not only had Ladoux shunned her, he also had not paid her. She had not heard from Massloff in some time and was worried that he had again been wounded.

She was running out of money and moved to increasingly cheaper hotels in the French capital. The next morning, she was arrested, her room searched, and her possessions seized. He placed her in isolation in the most horrific prison in Paris, Saint-Lazare. Dancer, courtesan and alleged spy Mata Hari is executed for espionage by a French firing squad at Vincennes outside of Paris.

She first came to Paris in and found fame as a performer of Asian-inspired dances. In reality, Mata Hari was born in a small town in northern Holland in , and her real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. She acquired her superficial knowledge of Indian and Javanese dances when she lived for several years in Malaysia with her former husband, who was a Scot in the Dutch colonial army.

Regardless of her authenticity, she packed dance halls and opera houses from Russia to France, mostly because her show consisted of her slowly stripping nude. She became a famous courtesan, and with the outbreak of World War I her catalog of lovers began to include high-ranking military officers of various nationalities. In February , French authorities arrested her for espionage and imprisoned her at St.

Lazare Prison in Paris. She was convicted and sentenced to death, and on October 15 she refused a blindfold and was shot to death by a firing squad at Vincennes. There is some evidence that Mata Hari acted as a German spy, and for a time as a double agent for the French, but the Germans had written her off as an ineffective agent who produced little intelligence of value.

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