 Domestic German opposition to Article 231 has been held to have created a psychological and political burden on the post @-@ war Weimar Republic . German politicians seeking international sympathy would use the article for its propaganda value , convincing many who had not read the treaties that the article implied full war guilt . German revisionist historians who subsequently attempted to ignore the validity of the clause found a ready audience among ' revisionist ' writers in France , Britain , and the United States . The objective of both the politicians and historians was to prove that Germany was not solely guilty for causing the war ; if that guilt could be disproved the legal requirement to pay reparations would disappear . This subject , the question of Germany 's guilt ( <unk> or war guilt question ) became a major theme of Adolf Hitler 's political career . 
