Mata Hari... 100 years ago, within a few months, the most famous spy of the Great War was arrested, convicted and executed. Who among the readers of the Notebooks has never been interested in the history and life of this extraordinary woman, in the writings or films she inspired? But as the author of this article points out, reality has been so distorted over the years that it is difficult today to disentangle the true from the false in the journey of this adventuress.

We therefore warmly thank Lieutenant-Colonel Lahaie, a faithful contributor to the Cahiers, for restoring the truth in this article, thanks to a rigorous work of historical research.

Mata Hari... Rarely has an espionage case generated so much writing and debate, so much passion. The destiny of the Dutch dancer has been the source of such whimsical stories that it is difficult - even today - to see clearly. Fortunately, the file of the ^3rd council of war which judged her has been preserved in its entirety at the Historical Service of Defence (Château de Vincennes). We used it to return to the facts themselves. We have also called upon the most trustworthy testimonies to find out Mata Hari's motivations. To return to the sources of the truth, it will thus be advisable, initially, to restore an exact chronology of what was - let us say it as of now - a flagrant offence of espionage, to answer the question that some persist in asking themselves against all odds: "Was an innocent woman - an international celebrity and luxury prostitute - shot in order to serve as a stooge for the counter-espionage services?E.) counter-espionage services"?

From Margaretha Geertruida Zelle to Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born on 7 August 1876 in Leeuwarden, Holland. At the age of 18, she married a Dutch naval officer, 19 years her senior, Rudolf MacLeod, with whom she went to live in East Java. There she learns a few words of Javanese and is introduced to local dances. Two children are born, one of whom dies in 1899. In 1902, the couple returned to The Hague and separated. In November 1903, Marguerite Zelle arrived in Paris. She calls herself "Lady MacLeod" and, in order to survive, is maintained, half-courtisan, half-prostitute...

At the beginning of 1905, she began to compose her role as an oriental dancer. Emilie Guimet, a wealthy orientalist, invited her to come and dance in the library of the museum he had founded, transformed into a Hindu temple for the occasion. Under the pseudonym "MataHari" - which means "rising sun" in Malay - she triumphs there in a half-erotic, half-exotic number. Slim, dark and sensual, she appears almost naked in front of her audience. She dares everything in this society of the first 20th century, which is ^still extremely rigid... Men are bewitched. Faced with her Parisian success, Gabriel Astruc becomes her impresario. She performed at the Olympia in August 1905; the artist earned 10,000 francs per show. Dressed in sumptuous oriental outfits, as imaginary as they were light, she then travelled around the European capitals, watched by journalists who delighted in her confidences, taking her many inventions about her past as her own. A true courtesan, she likes to hang out with officers and politicians, with little concern for their nationality (which she will be accused of at her trial). In 1907, she stayed in Berlin and became the lover of Lieutenant Alfred Kiepert. He forces her to stop her shows. They end up separating. Back in Paris, Mata Hari's career is struggling to get off the ground; indebted, she is reduced to playing in more popular shows and does not hesitate to prostitute herself in brothels. In February 1914 in Berlin, a member of the German intelligence service (S.R.) already offered her a job. At the end of July, the artist remembers her former lover Adolphe Messimy, then Minister of War, in her memory... The outbreak of the war ended up ruining her. In September, she returns to Holland.

The spy "H. 21"

In December 1914, in The Hague, Carl Krämer - German consul general and intermediary of the secret service - hires Mata Hari. A star of the show, polyglot, she travels a lot and will be less suspected of going from one country to another... She accepts 30.000 marks to bring back information from France. In January 1915, the French counter-espionage which follows her worries about her activities; but one does not note any grievance against her. She sold her luxury hotel in Neuilly-sur-Seine and chose to return to The Hague to live a more modest life.

In November, Krämer goes to Mata Hari and offers her another 20,000 francs to bring back information from Paris. She accepts, this time officially becoming Agent "H. 21». She receives three vials (a secret ink and its revelators) to write her reports. Mata Hari embarks for France, via England. When her ship is boarded by the English, she throws her vials overboard. She was forced to disembark at Folkestone to be interrogated by "MI 5" [1] who wanted to knowher true identity. She was released. On December 3rd, she is in Paris and frequents a number of officers, as well as the Marquis Pierre de Clergerie who encrypts messages from the Quai d'Orsay. Needless to say, she was followed by inspectors from the Sûreté générale...

On 10 January 1916, Mata Hari opted to return to Holland via Barcelona and Lisbon. In Spain, she is jointly supervised by the English and the French... In February, a report from "MI 5" is worried about the troubled personality of the dancer.

Back in her country, Mata Hari is greeted by Krämer; she gives him some gossip, gleaned in the capital... In April, Colonel Nicolaï (head of the German S.R.) studies Mata Hari's file. She is described as a "mediocre agent" whose training must be "resumed if something is to be gained from it". In the first week of May, she undergoes special training in Frankfurt, with fair results. Her trainer says: "She was surprisingly easy to adapt, but had no aptitude for espionage. Superficial in her observations, untimely in her rare initiatives, inconsistent and passive on special occasions, she was always unable to assimilate the essential data of sympathetic inks and encryption". "«H. 21" was sent back to Paris, with a fee of 15,000 francs. On 17 June, she arrives on the spot; the dancer, a suspect, is constantly followed by the police and military counter-espionage... She does not go very far, and it is noted that she frequents a lot of Franco-British officers.

A month later, a report informed Captain Georges Ladoux - head of the "Section de centralisation des renseignements" [2] - that Mata Hari intended to go to Vittel for treatment, but that she feared she would not obtain the necessary authorisations.

Ladoux is thinking of offering to facilitate her, wishing to return her to make her a double agent. On 31 July, "the Zelle woman" (as specified in the spying reports) is refused her pass to go to Vittel, as the town is locatedShe was advised to go to the "Bureau des étrangers" at 282, boulevard Saint-Germain, the address which also houses Ladoux's office. On August^1st, the first meeting between Mata Hari and the captain took place. He offered to hire her. She did not give her opinion on this proposal, simply asking for a pass to Vittel (which Ladoux refused).

The Dutchwoman visited Pierre de Margerie[3] to ask him for advice on a potential engagement in the French secret service; he tried to dissuade her.

Things could therefore end there - and Ladoux's plans would collapse in on themselves - if, at times, fate did not manifest itself... Indeed, on August 3, Mata Hari meets the man who will be her last love and, without a doubt, a determining figure in the course of events. It is Captain Vadim Massloff, an officer in the 1st Russian Special Regiment, who is twenty years younger than her. On the 8th, the dancer returns to Ladoux. If she manages to leave for Vittel, Massloff - who, wounded, is convalescing in Châlons-sur-Marne - will be able to come and see her. She therefore agrees to consider Ladoux's proposal. On the 28th, Mata Hari obtained her residence permit in the army zone.

On the^1st September, it is still under close surveillance that she goes down to the "Grand Hôtel des Bains". On the 16th, she saw Ladoux again in Paris; she confirmed that she agreed to work for him in Germany or in occupied Belgium: "I will attend the German staff in Belgium. I don't intend to hang around there for several months in small businesses. I'll do one big job, one big one, and then I'll leave. I'm asking for a million". The rate is high, but Ladoux seems to find it acceptable. However, he says to him, "If you betray us, you will find out that we know about it before the council of war". Troubled, the dancer leaves her office without bothering to ask for an advance, even though she is penniless. To finance her trip, she has the audacity to ask the Reich's secret service for 5,000 francs in the form of a cheque which she will withdraw at the Discount Counter!

On October 17, Mata Hari goes to the premises of the Central Intelligence Section (S.C.R.) and, in the evening, sends a telegram to Ladoux. She sent a second telegram on the 19th. On the 20th, 23rd, and 31st, she returned to the offices of the C.I.S.R.

On November 4, Mata Hari receives her cheque, sent by her maid to the Dutch consul in Paris. The next day, she took the train to Madrid. There, the German military attaché von Kalle gave her another 3,500 pesetas. Finally, the same attaché, in a radiogram to her chiefs, informed them that, as soon as she was due to return to Paris, "agent H. 21 wishes to receive, without delay, through the intermediary of his servant Anna Lintyens, the German consul in Amsterdam and the Dutch consul in Paris, another cheque for 5,000 francs". On the 9th, Mata Hari's boat - which is on its way to France - is diverted to Falmouth by the British; she is interrogated by the "Special Branch" ofScotland Yard. The E.C. seems to take her for a certain Clara Bénédix, another enemy spy... She confides to the investigators that she is part of the Belgian and French secret services. Consulted by telegraph, Ladoux denies knowing the dancer and asks that she be sent back to Spain. On the 21st, Mata Hari left Liverpool; she arrived in Madrid on 8 December. On the spot, she was constantly followed by agents of the Sûreté. She wrote to Ladoux to tell him of her setbacks, then to Kalle, the German attaché; she requested an interview with him, which she obtained. She gave him false information and asked for another 10,000 francs (which Kalle did not pay). In the evening, she sends a report to Ladoux.

On the 11th, the dancer tells Colonel Denvignes - French military attaché in Madrid - that she works for the French S.R. and tells him about her visit to Kalle. Two days later, the German attaché begins a curious exchange of telegrams with Berlin... If he reports on his dealings with Mata Hari and asks for instructions, he uses an outdated secret code that the German secret service knows has been broken by the French. Moreover, without expressly naming Marguerite Zelle, he gives a series of details that enable investigators to trace her. However, these messages, picked up by the TSF station at the Eiffel Tower, will later be used to confuse the spy... On the 13th, Kalle sends two of them. On the 23rd, a third telegram is also intercepted by the French: other clues are again made available to the E.C.; the strongest is that it arrives to Kalle from the Foreign Ministry in Berlin!

Without knowing all this, Mata Hari goes back to Kalle; she receives 3,500 pesetas from him. That same evening, she wrote a long letter to Denvignes giving information she said she had obtained from the German attaché. On the 26th, Kalle telegraphed again to Berlin to give an account of the payment of the sum to "H. 21». In anticipation of the dancer's move to Paris, he commits a further indiscretion which further identifies the agent.

Two days later, Mata Hari asks Kalle to have 5,000 francs sent to the Comptoir d'escompte in Paris. Once again, the attaché immediately reports this to Berlin and specifies that the arrival of "H. 21" in France is imminent. And of course, the text of the communication is captured by the Eiffel Tower...

On January 2, 1917, Mata Hari leaves Madrid; on the 4th, she is in Paris. In the evening, she went to the War Ministry to try to see Ladoux: it was a failure. On the 5th, Berlin worries Kalle about a secret report from "H. 21" which did not reach him. In the meantime, Mata Hari returns to 282, Boulevard Saint-Germain and asks to see Ladoux. He is told that he is absent. Same answer the next day. On the 7th, she manages to be received. Ladoux doubts the value of the information he had transmitted from Madrid. And when she asks to be paid, he refuses. A week later, she wrote to him, once again offering to carry out a mission: "What do you want from me? I am willing to do whatever you want, I don't ask for your secrets, I don't want to know your agents; I am an international woman; don't discuss my means, don't spoil my work by secret agents who can't understand".

On the 16th, Mata Hari had 5,000 francs sent from Holland, through her servant, which she pocketed from the Dutch Consul General in Paris. In the evening, she reconnects with a former lover, who later writes: "I have a strange memory of Mata Hari. The qualities and faults of this complex being were a singular mixture. She combined the wiles of a wild animal with strange naiveté. She was vain and spontaneous, lavish and greedy, secretive and loquacious, willful and whimsical, eager to dominate, thirsty for pleasure and unscrupulous. Instinct was much more important than intelligence, which was mediocre. She lived on fantasies. She let herself be guided by her imagination, and that is what lost her".

On February 3, Massloff met her at her hotel and told her that the Russian C.E. had contacted his colonel to stop seeing her. On this occasion, Mata Hari was described as a "dangerous person" (which she denies in front of her lover). In need of money, she leaves the "Plaza" for the "Élysée-Palace". Since the spy reports have come to nothing and the dancer is about to get her visa for Holland, Ladoux decides to have her arrested. On the 10th, a letter from Lyautey, Minister of War, designates Mata Hari to the governor of Paris as a spy. An order to inform, emanating from the military government of Paris is transmitted to Captain Bouchardon - reporter to the 3rd council of ^{war -} who will issue the warrant to bring her in. The special commissioner Albert Priolet, from the entrenched camp in Paris, is in charge of the arrest.

From arrest to execution (13 February 1917-15 October 1917)

On February 13, the dancer was arrested; the indictment was as follows: "Having, both abroad and in France, maintained intelligence with the agents of an enemy power for the purpose of furthering the undertakings of that power, answerable for the crime of having communicated to the latter numerous documents and information concerning the internal policy of France and the offensive of the spring of 1916".

On 6 March, a new telegram, sent from Berlin to Madrid, further reinforced the idea of Mata Hari's guilt among the French. On April 11, Ladoux warned Bouchardon that in order to convict her, he was able to transmit "incontestable" incriminating evidence to the courts; however, he specified that he would prefer that she confess otherwise. Bouchardon therefore urged him to spy on her with questions; let that be the end of it! The latter ferociously denies that she is part of the opposing secret service and claims not to have provided information to Kalle. She claims that the cheques, cashed by her at the Discount Counter, all come from a former lover.

On the 23rd, Mr. Clunet, her lawyer, wrote to Bouchardon to have her released; in fact, her client had been locked up for two months, without any evidence having been found against her... Before her release, Ladoux decided to produce the text of the telegrams received by the Eiffel Tower. The case suddenly becomes clear... On May 1st, Bouchardon^proves to Mata Hari that she is "H. 21", telegrams in support. At first she denies that it is her, but faced with the accumulation of evidence and the luxury of details that designate her almost as clearly as if she were named, she collapses. On the 13th, Mata Hari is brought into the presence of Ladoux. On the 21st, she confessed (while lying on a number of compromising points). The next day, a second confrontation with Ladoux; he claims not to have hired her, declaring before Bouchardon: "An agent is hired when he has received a mission, a serial number, means of communication and money. An agent can only be given an assignment when he is sure of it. MacLeod was very suspicious of me". In front of the examining magistrate, the chief of the E.C. justifies his line of conduct by the will to confuse a false double agent... On the 23rd, Bouchardon traps Mata Hari. She admits to having provided information to the enemy S.R., declaring: "In any case, I did not provide any military information!". She is therefore really a spy, albeit on a small scale, but a spy all the same, as a telegram from Berlin shows: "Could do better". A week later, Mata Hari is again confronted with Ladoux; the latter offers her to deliver his accomplices in France to save her head, a proposal that the dancer rejects... On June 21, the investigation of the Mata Hari trial ends; Bouchardon will have questioned the defendant 17 times.

On July 24, the trial opens with the accused's defence. Many of the protagonists whose names will be mentioned are absent... Most of them are former lovers, such as Messimy, and fear for their reputation. Ladoux and Lieutenant-Colonel Goubet (his superior) can develop their version of the facts at their leisure: they are convinced that Mata Hari is a high-flying spy and will do their utmost to convince the jury of this. On the 25th, the indictment and closing arguments take place. The public prosecutor is none other than André Mornet, the same one who will judge Marshal Pétain in 1945. Convicted of the eight charges weighing on her for "espionage" and "intelligence with the enemy", Mata Hari can only be condemned to death... Her lawyer counterattacks, but on August 17, her appeal for revision is rejected. On 27 September, the judgement is confirmed by the Court of Cassation. The Dutch ambassador in Paris asks for the sentence to be commuted, but the French government claims that the evidence against her is overwhelming... Poincaré refuses a presidential pardon. On October 15, while Mata Hari was being dragged from her sleep and told that she was to be executed immediately, she cried out: "It can't be! It's not possible... Oh, those Frenchmen! What good is it going to do them to have killed me; if it would help them win the war... Ah! They'll see! It was well worth it that I did so much for them, and yet I'm not French". To the question: "Don't you have any revelation to make?", put to all the condemned who are about to be executed, "H. 21' answers: 'None. And if I had any, you think I would keep them to myself!". At 06:15 precisely, Mata Hari was shot at the Vincennes Polygon, the place where spies are executed in the capital.

[1] British counter-espionage

[2] Military counter-espionage

3] Political Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs