Article 231, often known as the "War Guilt" clause, was the opening article of the reparations section of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War between the German Empire and the Allied and Associated Powers. The article did not use the word guilt but it served as a legal basis under which Germany was to pay reparations for damages caused during the war.
Avocourt, 1918, one of the many destroyed French villages, candidates for reconstruction funded by reparations
Norman Davis, one of the two authors of Article 231
Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau
Trains, loaded with machinery, deliver their cargo as reparation payment in kind.
War guilt question
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The war guilt question is the public debate that took place in Germany for the most part during the Weimar Republic, to establish Germany's share of responsibility in the causes of the First World War. Structured in several phases, and largely determined by the impact of the Treaty of Versailles and the attitude of the victorious Allies, this debate also took place in other countries involved in the conflict, such as in the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom.
Signature of the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors in 1919
Erich von Falkenhayn
Copy of Die Weltbühne from 12 March 1929
Emperor Wilhelm II, Hindenburg and Ludendorff. From 1916, the two generals took over the military and political affairs of Germany.