Embalmed head of mata hari biography

Mata Hari was the stage name Dutch-born Margaretha Zelle took when she became one of Paris' most popular exotic dancers on the eve of World War I. Although details of her past are sketchy, it is believed that she was born in the Netherlands in 1876 and married a Dutch Army officer 21 years her senior when she was 18.

Embalmed head of mata hari biography

She quickly bore him two children and followed him when he was assigned to Java in 1897. The marriage proved rocky. The couple returned to the Netherlands in 1902 with their daughter (their other child, a son, had died mysteriously in Java).

Margaretha's husband obtained a divorce and retained custody of his daughter.

With the outbreak of World War I, Mata Hari's cross-border liaisons with German political and military figures came to the attention of the French secret police and she was placed under surveillance.

Brought in for questioning, the French reportedly induced her to travel to neutral Spain in order to develop relationships with the German naval and army at