Brockdorff-Rantzau was Germany's foreign minister when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty was meant to put an end to World War I.
Initially, the German delegation had great trust in the process, as they had been promise a treaty that would ensure "a peace without victory." However, what they obtained was very different. Brockdorff-Rantzau believed the terms of the treaty to be extremely harsh towards Germany. The country lost 13 percent of its territory and 10 percent of its population. Moreover, it was denied membership in the League of Nations, forced to pay significant reparations and forced to claim that they took sole responsibility for the war.
The delegates explained this by justifying the amount of destruction that they believed Germany was responsible for, and by referring to the actions of Germany during the war. Despite a great amount of debate, Germany was eventually forced to sign the treaty, creating a lot of resentment in the country.
