German vehicle registration plates (KraftfahrzeugKennzeichen or, more colloquially, Nummernschilder) indicate the place where the vehicle bearing them is registered. Whenever the German owners of a motor vehicle change their main place of residence within Germany, they are required to reregister their vehicle(s) and buy new number plates. These can be valid for a full year or for between 2 and 11 months in any one year. motorcycles) which they intend to drive only during one particular part of the year. As of 2007, new number plates normally cost around 30, while the cost of deregistering a vehicle and reregistering it with new plates is between 10 and 40. If ownership of a vehicle is permanently transferred to a new owner who lives in the same city/region then the registration number may remain unchanged. Administration fees are, however, still payable in respect of the necessary changes to the vehicle's official documentation.
The present German number plate format has been in use since 1994. As with many plates for countries within the European Union, a blue strip on the left shows a shortened country code in white text (D for Deutschland = Germany) and the Flag of Europe (12 golden stars forming a circle on a blue background).
The rest of the license plate uses black print on a white background. Just after the country code strip is a one, two or three letter abbreviation, which represents the city or region where the car was registered, such as B for Berlin. These letters usually coincide with the German districts (complete list); in some cases an urban district and the surrounding nonurban district share the same letter code. Where this happens, the number of the following letters Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping and digits is usually different. For example, the urban district of Straubing (SR) has one letter after the code (SR A 123). The surrounding district StraubingBogen has two letters (SR AB 123) after the code. However, these different systems are being used in fewer cases, as many cities that share their code with the surrounding rural districts have started using all codes for both districts without any distinction; the city of Regensburg, for example, and the surrounding rural district Regensburg used different systems only until 2007.
The number of letters in the city/region prefix code mostly reflects the size of the district. The basic idea was to even out the number of digits on all license plates, because the largest districts would have more digits after the prefix for more cars. The largest German cities generally only have one letter codes (B=Berlin, M=Munich, K=Cologne (Kln), F=Frankfurt, L=Leipzig, S=Stuttgart), most other districts in Germany have two or three letter codes. Therefore, cities or districts with fewer letters are generally assumed to be bigger and more important. Reflecting that, most districts tried to get a combination with fewer letters for their prefix code.
Districts in eastern Germany usually have more letters, for two reasons:
Fewer people live in eastern German districts, so the number of cars registered is smaller and hence the use of three letter codes.
With the introduction of the current system on 1 July 1956 in then West Germany including Berlin (West), letters had been reserved for all east German districts of that time. However, a lot of those districts were changed over the years, and in 1990 after German reunification, many of the possible shorter combinations had already been used up in western Germany. Germany's second largest city Hamburg (HH, Hansestadt Hamburg, because of its historical membership in the Hanseatic League, reflected already in its prefix used between 1906 and 1945). Similar is the case of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven, forming the State of Bremen, sharing the common prefix HB (19061947, and again since 1956), differentiated by the number of letters and digits added.
In 1956 also Lbeck received its former prefix HL, already used between 1906 and 1937, when its statehood was abolished. In analogy to these three northwestern cities, but without historical examples of formerly issued prefixes, four northeastern Hanseatic cities, Greifswald, Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar, chose the prefixes HGW, HRO, HST and HWI, since the shorter HG (Hochtaunuskreis, capital: Bad Homburg vor der Hhe), HR (SchwalmEderKreis, capital: Homberg (Efze)), HS (Kreis Heinsberg) and HW (Kreis Halle in Westphalia) were already taken by west German districts.
More west German districts have prefixes derived from the names of their capitals: Ammerland (WST, after Westerstede), Dithmarschen (HEI, after Heide in Dithmarschen), Harburg (WL, after Winsen upon Luhe), Herzogtum Lauenburg (RZ, after Ratzeburg) etc.
The letter "G" was reserved for the east German city of Gera, although it is much smaller than the west German Gelsenkirchen ("GE"). The letter "L" had been reserved for Leipzig, but in 1977 it was assigned to the newly formed rural district LahnDillKreis. This casts some light on how unlikely a reunification was regarded at that time. In 1990, Leipzig claimed back the letter "L", and it was reassigned, and LahnDillKreis had to change to LDK.
The reason for this scheme is however not to display size or location, but simply to have enough combinations available within the maximum length of eight characters per plate.
After the location name there are the emission test and vehicle safety test stickers (see below), followed by one or two usually random letters and one to four usually random numbers. The total quantity of letters and numbers on the plate is never higher wholesale jerseys than eight. One letter with low numbers are normally reserved for motorcycle use since the plate space of these vehicles is smaller.
A problem with this scheme is that the space is a significant character and must be thought of when writing down a number. For example B is not the same number as BM The confusion can be avoided by writing a hyphen after the city code, as in the old number plates, like BMW For this reason, the police will always radio the location name and spell out the next letters using the German telephone alphabet, which varies somewhat from the English one. Thus, B would be radioed as "Berlin, Martha, Wilhelm, fnffnffnf" and BM as "Bergheim, Wilhelm, fnffnffnf".
For an extra charge of 10.20 Euro car owners can also buy personalized plates. Car owners can simply choose the numbers or letters instead of the random ones at the end, provided of course they are unique and not a prohibited combination. For example, people living in the town of Pirna might choose PIRAT 77, "Pirat" being the German for "pirate". Kiel is one of few places (others are Brake (capital of the district of Wesermarsch), Cham, Daun, Emden, Halle, Hamm, Heide, Herne, Hof, Kleve, Kusel, Lauf, Pirna, Pln, Regen, Ulm, Unna and Wesel) where the number plate can be the city name: 'KIEL'.
Germany includes diacritical marks in the letters of some codes, that is the letters , and . Such a thing is rarely done in other European countries, but also appears on regular Croatian (letters , and ), Serbian and land registration plates (letter ), as well as on Swedish (letters , and ) and Danish (letters , and ) personal registration plates. However, in Germany there are no two codes where the only difference is that one letter is A and , O and or U and . The district Schsische Schweiz uses the name of its main town, Pirna, in its code PIR, to avoid the use of SS, the name of the paramilitary organization; similarly SA is also unused. In 2004 in Nuremberg, a car owner was refused a number plate beginning NPD because of the connection to the political party the NPD.[citation needed] The combinations STASI, HEIL and IZAN are also avoided, to avoid association with Stasi, with the Nazi salute and with NAZI backwards.
Banned combinations also include the Nazi abbreviations HJ (Hitlerjugend, Hitler Youth), NS (Nationalsozialismus, National Socialism), SA (Sturmabteilung), SS (Schutzstaffel) and KZ (Konzentrationslager, concentration camp). Some registration offices have overlooked this rule by mistake, however, and there are a few cars registered carrying prohibited codes, such as BSS 12. Berlin for example was using I A (I for Prussia), Munich II A (II for Bavaria), Stuttgart III A (III for Wrttemberg). Other German states used further Roman numbers such as IV (Baden), V (Hesse), and VI (AlsaceLorraine; now France). Many states used prefixes derived from the state names, such as B (Brunswick), HB (Bremen), HH (Hamburg), and HL (Lbeck), the latter three used again for the same entities since 1956. Other bigger cities: IV B Baden (Heidelberg, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Lake Constance), II N Cities of Nuremberg and Frth. The Prussian provinces had the following prefixes: I E Province of Brandenburg (to a minor part now Poland), I C Province of East Prussia (now divided between Lithuania, Poland and Russia), I S Province of Hannover, I T Province of HesseNassau (Today Frankfurt, State of Hessen and neighboring counties), I L Province of Hohenzollern, I Z Rhine Province (Cologne, Dsseldorf and other large cities in the Ruhr Area), I H Province of Pomerania (now prevailingly Poland), I Y Province of Posen (now Poland), I B Province of PosenWest Prussia (now Poland), I M Province of Saxony, I P Province of SchleswigHolstein, I K Province of Silesia (now mostly Poland), I X Province of Westphalia, and finally I D Province of West Prussia (now Poland).
During World War I the German Army was assigned the combination MK for "Militrkraftwagen des Deutschen Heeres", military vehicles of the German Army. Examples: BY Bavaria (Bayern) 19461947, AB Bavaria (American Zone, Bavaria) 19481956, B Bavaria 19501956. HE Hesse 19461947, AH Hesse (American Zone, Hesse) 19481956, H Hesse, 19501956. AW WrttembergBaden 19481956, W WrttembergBaden, 19501956, WB WrttembergBaden 19501956. M (=BM, for motor bikes) 19451946, (=GF; cars, lorries, and busses) Berlin 19451946, (=BG; cars, lorries, and busses) Berlin 19451947, M (=GM, for motor bikes) Berlin 19451947, KB Berlin 19471948, GB EastBerlin 19481953, KB WestBerlin 19481956. MGH Hamburg 1945, H Hamburg 19451947, HG Hamburg 1947, BH Hamburg 19481956. BD Baden 19451949, FB Baden 19491956. WT WrttembergHohenzollern 19451949, FW WrttembergHohenzollern 19491956.
In 1956 the current system was introduced in then West Germany, replacing the postwar system which was based on occupation zones.
As West German districts were extensively rearranged in the early 1970s, many prefix codes were expired and new ones were created at that time. However, number plates issued before these rearrangements remain valid, providing the vehicle is still in use and has not been reregistered since. EIN = Einbeck).
When originally planned, the system included codes for districts in Eastern Germany which were to be reserved until reunification. That included the territory of the GDR as well as the territories annexed to Poland and the Soviet Union after World War II, which West Germany's government still claimed in that era until about 1970. P for Potsdam) were indeed issued to East German districts as originally planned and as they existed at that time. However, districts in East Germany were rearranged again in the mid1990s, thus many of these codes have expired, but can likewise still be seen on older vehicles.
One example of a reserved code being reused before reunification was the letter L which was originally planned for Leipzig, but was given to the newly formed Hessian district LahnDillKreis in the 1980s as hopes for reunification faded away. After the rather unexpected reunification the L was returned to the city of Leipzig and the LahnDillKreis was issued with LDK instead after a transitional period when L was in use in both districts.
Another reserved code was G for Gera. In the 1980s the West German TV series "Der Fahnder"[1] G was an imaginary large city in the Ruhrgebiet area.