The real German objection to the Treaty of Versailles, however, was to the infamous Article 231, which forced Germany to accept sole blame for the war in order to justify the reparations. Despite much debate among the Allies themselves and over strenuous German protests—including by Brockdorff-Rantzau, who wrote to the Allies on May 13 that The German people did not will the war and would never have undertaken a war of aggression—Article 231 remained in the treaty.
