The German Democratic Republic was founded October 7, 1949. From May 8, 1945 to October 7, 1949 the five states of the later GDR have been administrated by the Soviet military administration. The old registration plates from the "Deutsches Reich" have been removed by the military administration. They introduced a new system which was in use from 1945 to 1947. In 1948 in all four occupation zones in Germany a standartized system replaced the different short-term systems of the different zones. In East Germany this system was in use until 1953. In the GDR the five states have been superseded by 15 districts. Because of this reorganization the GDR introduced a new vehicle registration system on the base of the new 15 districts in the same year.

On the following pages I show the plate history of the GDR with examples from my collection:

• 1945 - 1947 Soviet Occupation Zone (first system)
• 1948 - 1953 Soviet Occupation Zone (standartized system of all four zones)
• 1953 - 1990 Vehicle Registration System of the GDR
• normal series
• Early Plates
• Later Plates until 1975
• Later Plates from 1976
• the code list
• trade and temporary plates
• diplomatics and foreigners
• vintage cars
• army, frontier troops, police
• Sports and Technical Organization
• seals of the normal series and of the diplomatic/foreigner series

ralf@hegis.de

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