While flying combat missions for France, he was shot down over the Western Front and severely wounded. When reporters and others interviewed her, Zelle continually added to the mystique that surrounded her by spinning fantastic, fictionalized stories about her background, including being a Javanese princess and daughter of a baron. She met a German attach and began tossing him bits of gossip, hoping to get some valuable information in return. After 10 years, Zelles act was no longer fashionable though she was still able to support herself as a courtesan, though naively, she slept with both French and German soldiers in a Europe at war. However, things became dangerously disordered for the Dragon when he and his sons, Vlad and Radu, attended a diplomatic meeting with Ottoman Sultan Murad II. This must be very early in 1917: Russia was in turmoil that year, with a revolution in February and the tsar's abdication in March. The newly released files show Mata Hari was trailed by Allied surveillance officers across France, Spain and England. After the tragedy, the MacLeod family returned to the Netherlands. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Michael Nicholson/Corbis via Getty Images, https://www.history.com/news/the-exotic-dancer-who-became-wwis-most-notorious-spy, The Dancer Who Became WWIs Most Notorious Spy. Whether guilty or innocent, at dawn on October 15, 1917, Mata Hari was driven to a field on the outskirts of Paris. "He was very intimate with her from this date and constant letters pass between, he was her favourite lover," the MI5 files state. His military career later took the couple to Indonesia, where they had two children, but their marriage was plagued by infidelity and domestic violence. A spy, never! When questioned about Kalles messages, she came clean about accepting money from the Germans, but denied passing them any secrets. It is 1917. After Maslov went to the front, they are no longer met. All Rights Reserved. Mata Hari fell in love with Russian officer Vladimir de Masloff. Mata Hari spent much of her career claiming that she was raised as an Indian temple dancer. There are memories of a Soviet diplomat Alexei Ignatiev, in which he wrote that Vadim Maslov after the emigration took monastic vows. It is speculated that the French were already feeding Hari false information due to their own suspicions. Surviving documents studied by historians, confirm that one of the most famous spies of the world Mata Hari was madly in love with a Russian officer, Vadim Maslov, even though he was younger than she by almost half and, apparently, so strong mutual feelings towards the mistress not experienced. She was now nearly 40, and she had watched her dancing career slowly stagnate. It was a desperate time for the French. During lengthy interrogations by Captain Pierre Bouchardon, a military prosecutor, Mata Hari who had long lived a fabricated life, embellishing both rearing and resume bungled and facts about her whereabouts and activities. Sie wurde am 15. A beauty contest held every year in America since 1973 has a unique feature every contestant is a crab! The Zelle family was fraught with issues. Biography of Mata Hari, Infamous World War I Spy. Karineh Polenz wrote in his book that Vadim Maslovs arrest (and death too) Mata Hari wasnt too worried he thought she was just one of the women with whom he had an affair. In any case, the French authorities arrested Mata Hari for espionage in Paris on February 13, 1917. That summer, a French intelligence operative named Georges Ladoux approached her in Paris with yet another lucrative espionage offerthis time to spy for France. Vlad would taste victory, escape capture by the Ottomans, survive imprisonment by Hungarian enemies, and reclaim his crown. Margaretha began to fashion herself as an Indonesian princess, lied to journalists about her birth and took on the name Mata Hari, which translates literally from Malay to eye of the day the sun. At the time of her execution on Oct. 15, 1917, in a muddy field outside Paris, she was accused of feeding Germany information that cost some 50,000 Allied troops their lives. With a record of Vadim Maslov says that he was a brave officer, your earned awards, including and for participation in the offensive battles, for showing in the attacks, bravery and ingenuity. In fact as early as 1930 the German government exculpated Zelle. Vlad the Impaler would answer the call. "I come last?" When faced with her acquaintances with officers of all ranks and all nations, she replied that she loved all officers, and would rather have as her lover a poor officer than a rich banker, the MI5 files note. Unfortunately for her this glamorous new career proved brief and fatal. Preserved telegram Maslov asked his beloved about welfare he urgently needed a 3 thousand francs. Margaretha was incapable of supporting herself and her daughter, or of fighting when her ex-husband took custody of the child. About the Book Find at your local library Description The famous courtesan and exotic entertainer Margaretha Zelle (Mata Hari) reaches her middle years disillusioned with life until she meets and falls in love with the dashing Russian soldier Captain Vladimir de Masloff. Over the course of his life the brutal ruler of Wallachia had killed an estimated 80,000 people, a quarter of which had been impaled on stakes and brandished like flags of flesh outside the city of Targoviste. The marriage was an unpleasant one. Theodor "fedja" Masloff, Berta Justiina Masloff (o.s. Famous designers would offer her outfits for the stage, and postcards showing Mata Hari wearing her breast plate in poses from her routines were circulated. Its leader was future Holy Roman Emperor King Sigismund of Hungary, who inducted Vlad's father, Vlad the Dragon, into the order, per Live Science. Ivan Masloff COO de Haloprof. to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about Greta Garbo is a delight in this biopic of the exotic dancer executed for espionage, and the supporting moustaches a special treat, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, The art of seduction Ramon Navarro and Greta Garbo in Mata Hari. In real life, Zelle had a hot young Russian lover called Captain Vladimir de Masloff, whom she protected just as Mata Hari tries to protect Rosanoff in the film. For this codename to already be known to Berlin, Ladoux concluded, she must have been in communication with German intelligence long before, and had therefore been hoodwinking the French all along. On her first and only mission she traveled to Belgium and then Spain, and in November 1916 she continued her journey via Britain. British Arrest (02:49) As a French spy, Mata Hari boarded a boat for Belgium. Desperate for adventure, at age 18 she answered a newspaper ad and wed a much older army captain named Rudolf MacLeod. Zelle became famous. If I dont have to dance, I make a trip with Marquis C. I avoid serious liaisons.. Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, on August 7, 1876, as the first of four children. says one woman cheerfully to her husband. Visser decided to send Zelle to a school that trained kindergarten teachers so that she'd have a career. The story about this fact of the biography of Mata Hari and Vadim Maslov fiction: persuasive evidence of exactly this (and any other) behavior of a Russian officer in relation to his beloved by anyone of the historians is not given. In preserved to this day documents (this is the main archive spy) dashed line marks the blind passion of this woman against the Russian officer Mata Hari constantly sought meetings with him, wrote that only Vadim Maslov wants to see your lawful husband. The famous courtesan and exotic entertainer Margaretha Zelle (Mata Hari) reaches her middle years disillusioned with life until she meets and falls in love with the dashing Russian soldier Captain Vladimir de Masloff. While visiting him at the front, Captain Georges Ladoux offered her to become a spy. Per History,a "horrified" Mehmed fled to Constantinople when he encountered the mass aerial grave serving as grisly bird feed for crows. Anxious to make money to start a new life with him, she accepted Ladouxs deal and announced her intentions to seduce military secrets out of high-ranking Germans. When Mata Hari in February 1917 in Paris arrested by French intelligence, Maslov fought with the Germans in the area of Fort Brilon in the part of the 1st Special brigade. Before long, however, Mata Hari's cavalier travels and liaisons attracted attention from British and French intelligence, who put her under surveillance. In 2017, archives of the trial were released by the French government and do not reflect a fair trial. Additionally, currency she claimed was a regular stipend from a Dutch baron was portrayed in court as coming from German spymasters. Some accounts say she blew her executors a kiss yet other accounts say she merely raised her hand in farewell to the nuns who had looked after her in prison. The journey to go green is always a bit COPYRIGHT - ILAWJOURNALS.COM - LAW & CRIME NEWS, Vadim Maslov: as a Russian officer became the lover of Mata Hari, Russian anti-Mordovians: how they fought with each other, Russian Alcatraz: who put on the Solovki, 5 Legal Tips For Passengers Involved In Uber Or Lyft Accidents, Ultimate Guide to Investor Visas: What You Need to Know, Understanding When Its Time To File For Bankruptcy, Property Prices Continue to Rise in Arizona during the Coronavirus Pandemic, El Pas (Spain): Germany and the Netherlands oppose European economic recovery plan. At an early age, Mata Hari decided that sexuality was her ticket in life. Hari was tasked with seducing the Crown Prince of Germany, who had recently been placed in command of an army. Republication or distribution of this content is The officers noted that on Aug. 4, 1916, she wrote to a Don Diego de Leon and then met a Capt. It seems that when the Germans learned nothing useful from her and knowing she was now in the employment of French intelligence, they turned her in. For military merit was awarded 4 orders (St. Vladimir, St. Stanislaus, Anna) as well as the French war cross with a palm branch. Historian of archaeology Dr Amara Thornton explores a network of archaeologist-spies, codebreaking, mapping and running agents, and with expert contributors delves into the extraordinary double lives led by the critical players in the international theatres of World War One. "Shiva, I dance for you tonight," intones Mata Hari (Greta Garbo) to a six-armed statue of the Hindu god. This tragedy spelled the end of their brief, tumultuous marriage, and following their return to Europe in 1901 Margreet left for Paris, where she parlayed her (mostly fictional) exotic background and appearance into a career as a dancer, supposedly performing the ritual dances of the libidinous Far East naturally involving a good deal of nudity under the name Mata Hari,translating as Eye of the Day in Malay. Where John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields. In 1902, the couple moved back to The Netherlands and soon separated. Here are 10 facts: Mata Hari was a stage name taken on by a woman born in the Netherlands as Margaretha Zelle, on 7 August 1876. The details of Mata Haris espionage career remain sketchy, but it seems to have begun in the fall of 1915, when she was approached by Karl Kroemer, the honorary German consul in Amsterdam. The notion that Zelle was an exotic dancer who used her powers of seduction to extract military secrets was false. The battles shambled on like war-weary zombies in the form of what History describes as "mainly military campaigns aimed at pushing Muslims from conquered territory, or conquering pagan regions." She billed herself as a Hindu artist, draped in veilswhich she artfully dropped from her body. After respectable routes as a ladies companion, piano tutor and German tutor proved fruitless, she returned to exploiting the aspect of herself which she had used to get a husband. Andriani is furious with a German captain who has served as his technical expert, and who assured him that the "new weapon called a tank" was impractical. Dressed in a blue coat accented by a tri-corner hat, she had arrived at the Paris execution site with a minister and two nuns and, after bidding them farewell, walked briskly to the designated spot. There she met and fell in love with a much younger Russian officer, the 21-year-old Vladimir de Masloff, who seemed to be equally infatuated with the aging dancer. The evil that this woman has done is unbelievable, prosecutor Andre Mornet concluded in his final statement. This was going to be her last performance and she was going to go out in style, she said. Navigating the Complexities of Employee Classification: Independent Contractor or Employee? She was accused of espionage and was executed by firing squad in October 1917. The famous courtesan and exotic entertainer Margaretha Zelle (Mata Hari) reaches her middle years disillusioned with life until she meets. Her marriage elevated her social and financial position and the MacLeods had two children, Norman-John and Louise Jeanne, or Non. He lists them: "God. Kroemer evidently considered her high-class contacts and neutral Dutch citizenship a valuable asset, so he offered her 20,000 francs to become a spy for the Kaiser. Margaretha dutifully gave birth to two children. Zelle decided to go to Paris for a new start. She sent a striking photo of herself, raven-haired and olive-skinned, to entice him. Large, bearded, and beetle-browed, he was often cast as villains in both film and television. She was executed by firing squad on October 15, 1917, after French authorities learned of her alleged double agency. Determined to earn money to support him, Mata Hari accepted a lucrative assignment to spy for France from Georges Ladoux, an army captain who assumed her courtesan contacts would be of use to French intelligence. She supplemented her income by seducing government and military men; sex became strictly a financial practicality for her. Per OZY, Vlad invited the boyars, or local nobility, to a banquet and skewered them like macabre kebabs. During their rocky, nine-year marriage marred by MacLeod's heavy drinking and frequent rages over the attention his wife garnered from other officers Mata Hari gave birth to two children, a daughter and a son. 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