The Federal Republic of Germany has been founded at May 23, 1949. During the time from May 8, 1945 to May 23, 1949 the ten states of the later Federal Republic of Germany have been administrated by the military administration of the western allied forces from the USA, UK and France. Officially this occupation was in power until the contracts of Paris has been signed at May 5, 1955. From this time on the Federal Republic of Germany became a sovereign country again.

The old registration plates of the "Deutsches Reich" became unvalid through the new systems the military adminitration issued. During the years 1945 to 1947 the American, British and French military adminstration brought their own diferent license plate for each zone systems on the roads. In the year 1948 another new system has been established for all zone including the Soviet occupation zone (you'll find examples from the Soviet occupation zone on the pages on East Germany's plate history). This system was in use until 1956 in the western zones. At July 1, 1956 the current county code system for West-Germany has been introduced.

On the following pages I will show you the complete license plate system history of the Federal Republic of Germany with the help of plates from my own collection.

• 1945 - 1947 License plates from the Western Occupation Zones and Berlin (West) (first system)
• 1948 - 1956 Western Occupation Zones (second and equalized system for all zones)
• 1956 - today: The plate system of the Federal Republic of Germany
• ordinary plates from this system
• the DIN-plates (older format) incl. Federal Official Vehicles
• the EURO-plates (new format)
• the codelist
• Trade- and Export-plates
• Diplomatic plates
• Historic cars
• Army, Frontier Police, Police
• County seals from the DIN-series (older format)
• County seals from the EURO-series (new format)
• TÜV (technical inspection)- und ASU (exhaust fumes test)-seals

ralf@hegis.de

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