Mata Hari was already a worldwide celebrity. Her stay at the Cologne Cathedral Hotel in the spring of 1916 made her a legend. Here the infamous artist and courtesan became the notorious spy.
Parisian audiences were certainly not prudish, but what they saw at the turn of the century was sensational. A dark-haired beauty performed to oriental music and in an exotic stage setting. “Her swarthy complexion, full lips and sparkling eyes speak of distant lands, of scorching sun and tropical rain,” the newspapers gushed. “She wore a transparent white robe, and a curious clasp held the cloth around her waist. The movements became more and more violent, feverish and devoted. Then she stripped off all the veils one by one, and finally, in a state of rapture, she untied her girdle and fell fainting at Shiva’s feet.”
Mata Hari: exotic name, exotic resume
Mata Hari means “eye of the day” in Malay. Her resume read as exotic as her name. “I was born in the holy city of Jaffnapatnam,” claims Mata Hari in the program of one of her performances. “My father was a highly respected Brahmin, my mother a temple dancer who died in childbirth at the age of 14. I grew up in the care of temple priests. They consecrated me to Shiva and I was initiated into the mysteries of love and divine worship.”
The once magnificent Dom Hotel: It was here that Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, known as Mata Hari, began her career as a double spy.
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Who cared that Mata Hari’s real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle and she was born in Leuwardeen in the Netherlands in 1876? In 1897 she had moved to the Dutch East Indies with her husband, officer Rudolf MacLeod, who was 20 years her senior, and had also seen dances there. That’s it.
Back in Europe, the couple separated in 1902. Margaretha ended up in Paris, where she invented a new life. All of Europe was enthusiastic about this completely new type of artist. Mata Hari was paid 10,000 francs per evening. There was also income as a mistress of rich and powerful personalities. But over time, she lost her appeal. Her performances were copied by younger women and better dancers. Mata Hari urgently needed new sources of income for her luxurious lifestyle.
World War I: Intelligence takes advantage of Mata Hari’s skills
Then in 1914 the First World War broke out. The German secret service came up with the idea that Mata Hari’s abilities could be used. The dancer was not only fluent in Dutch, German, French and English. She also shared beds with interesting figures, including French military and politicians. On March 20, 1916, Mata Hari met Colonel Walter Nicolai, the head of the German secret service, in the Dom Hotel in Cologne.
He was by no means convinced by his subordinates’ suggestion that he recruit the dancer. “The external appearance left nothing to be desired”, admitted Nicolai, but appeared unimpressed. “She lived in a number of rooms with our money, accompanied by a maid.”
Identity documents illustrate the eventful life of double spy Mata Hari.
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Nicolai was received by Mata Hari “in a toilet, which showed me that she probably felt she had to win me over just like her previous sponsors. I don’t want to describe the details of our time together, I can only say that in this hour she performed all the arts of a really great cocotte, a pitiable, cunning person, uneducated and stupid. She did not know who I was, but she did know that this interview would determine her employment. She was disappointed that she couldn’t seduce me. Ultimately, however, Nicolai was persuaded. Mata Hari was trained in a one-week crash course to become a German spy, some say in the outer ring of fortresses.
Mata Hari spies for the Germans and the French
Then the French secret service approached them. Didn’t Mata Hari start a relationship with Crown Prince Wilhelm, the son of the German Emperor, during a guest performance in Berlin? Would she approach him again? Mata Hari also accepted the French offer. Suddenly the dancer was in the service of two warring powers as a double agent. Whether she really passed on explosive secrets is highly controversial.
However, the French quickly realized that Mata Hari was also being paid by the Germans under the alias H21. Perhaps she had even been recruited by the French side in the first place to make it easier to keep an eye on them. For the military, a double agent came at just the right time. The French population was just beginning to feel discontent about the war and the enormous losses. Now it could be argued that everything would have been better if this morally depraved person hadn’t been selling secrets.
French have Mata Hari executed
Mata Hari was arrested in a luxury hotel in Paris in 1917 and convicted of high treason in July after a day and a half closed trial. On October 15, 1917, at 6:15 a.m., the 41-year-old was executed by firing squad.
That in turn was a godsend for the war propaganda of the German Reich. Mata Hari had become a “victim of the French war madness”. Mata Hari’s transfiguration began, on the one side of the war as an innocent pawn victim, on the other side as a devious super spy.
What is the truth? Today the prevailing opinion is that she had to serve as a scapegoat. “I personally believe that she must have observed and reported very well, because she was one of the smartest women I have ever met,” writes Major Paul von Roepell, who trained Mata Hari, in an internal intelligence document from 1940: “She was certainly engaged in espionage in favor of Germany, and I believe that the French – unfortunately – were right to shoot her…”
Anselm Weyerhas a doctorate in German studies, writes architectural guides and deals with the history of Cologne in a variety of ways.
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