Page "Mata Hari" Paragraph 2

However, Margaretha's father went bankrupt in 1889, her parents divorced soon thereafter, and her mother died in 1891.

Her father remarried in Amsterdam on 9 February 1893 to Susanna Catharina ten Hoove ( 11 March 1844 – 1 December 1913 ), with whom he had no children.

The family had fallen apart and Margaretha moved to live with her godfather, Mr. Visser, in Sneek.

In Leiden, she studied to be a kindergarten teacher, but when the headmaster began to flirt with her conspicuously, she was removed from the institution by her offended godfather.

After only a few months, she fled to her uncle's home in The Hague.