Germany was the nation officially assigned primary responsibility for the First World War in the postwar peace settlement. The Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, placed Germany at the center of the legal responsibility used to justify reparations to the Allied powers.
The relevant provision was Article 231, commonly called the “war guilt clause.” Its wording assigned responsibility to Germany and its allies for the losses and damage caused by the war. Although the article was primarily written as a legal basis for reparations, many Germans understood it as a sweeping moral declaration that Germany alone had caused the conflict.
The historical reality was more complicated. Militarism, rival alliances, nationalism, imperial competition, and decisions by several governments contributed to the crisis after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Germany’s support for Austria-Hungary and its later military actions made it the principal target of the settlement, but historians continue to debate how responsibility should be shared.