 Foreign Minister Count Ulrich von Brockdorff @-@ Rantzau headed the 180 @-@ strong German peace delegation . They departed Berlin on 18 April 1919 , anticipating that the peace talks would soon start and that they and the Allied Powers would negotiate a settlement . Earlier , in February of that year , Brockdorff @-@ Rantzau had informed the Weimar National Assembly that Germany would have to pay reparations for the devastation caused by the war , but would not pay for actual war costs . The German government had also taken the position that it would be " inadvisable ... to elevate the question of war guilt " . On 5 May , Brockdorff @-@ Rantzau was informed that there would be no negotiations . Once the German delegation received the conditions of peace they would have fifteen days to reply . Following the drafting of the treaty , on 7 May the German and Allied delegations met and the Treaty of Versailles was handed off to be translated and for a response to be issued . At this meeting Brockdorff @-@ Rantzau stated that " We know the intensity of the hatred which meets us , and we have heard the victors ' passionate demand that as the vanquished we shall be made to pay , and as the guilty we shall be punished " . However , he proceeded to deny that Germany was solely responsible for the war . Following the meeting , the German delegation retired to translate the 80 @,@ 000 word document . As soon as the delegation realized the terms of peace , they agreed that they could not accept it without revision . They then proceeded to send their Allied counterparts , message after message attacking each part of the treaty . On 18 June , having disregarded the repeated explicit decisions of the government , Brockdorff @-@ Rantzau declared that Article 231 would have Germany accept full responsibility for the war by force . Max Weber , an advisor with the German delegation , agreed with Brockdorff @-@ Rantzau , also challenging the Allies over the issue of war guilt . He preferred to reject the treaty than submit to what he called a " rotten peace " . 
