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| Image Source (7 August 1876, Leeuwarden – 15 October 1917) |
Mata Hari
Mata Hari ‘drew every man’s lustful admiration and every woman’s envy. A Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France for espionage for Germany during World War I. Her popular acts toured other European cities, where she became the courtesan of powerful men in government and the military. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Prior to World War I, she was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited bohemian, but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress. When World War I broke out, the French suspected her of spying for the Germans, even though she was also likely doing so for the French. In January 1917, the German military attaché in Madrid transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, identified H-21 as Mata Hari. Unusually, the messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, leaving some historians to suspect that the messages were contrived. She was subsequently tried for espionage and found guilty. She was executed by Firing Squad on the 15th of September, 1917 at the age of 41.
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