13 registration series, sourced from Fahrzeug-Zulassungsverordnung (FZV) — Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr.
German plates are a paperwork sandwich: the city or district code (M for Munich, KA for Karlsruhe), then the registration seals — the state (Land) inspection Plakette and the district's own registration seal — pressed onto the plate itself, then the FE-Schrift characters designed so no letter can be taped into another. Remove the seal and the plate is legally dead.
Type any Germany registration — valid plates render below, on their real designs.
Try the API
Everything on this page — formats, validity, colours, the renders themselves — is one request away.
GET /v1/plates/de/match?plate=…
GET /v1/plates/de/match?plate=M%20KA%202843
{ "plate": "M KA 2843",
"valid": true, "exact": true,
"matches": [{ "id": "de-standard",
"render_url": "…svg?serial=M%20KA%202843" }] }
Get API access
FE-Schrift ("fälschungserschwerende Schrift" — forgery- impeding script) shapes every glyph so that no character can be altered into another with tape or paint: the P cannot become an R, the 3 cannot become an 8. It replaced the older DIN face for exactly this reason.
The round seals between the letters are not printed — they are physical badges applied at registration. A German plate without its district seal is invalid on sight, which is why export and dealer plates are visibly seal-less.
the default series issued to private road vehicles
The letters before the seal are the district — M München, KA Karlsruhe — a mechanism this black-on-white era introduced in 1956 and today's Euro plates inherited letter for letter. The serial behind it never meant anything, then or now.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
The German standard: district code, registration seals, and FE-Schrift — the plate as a tamper-evident document.
The one-to-three-letter prefix names the registration district, and roughly speaking the bigger the place, the shorter the code: B is Berlin, M München, GAP Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Everything after the seal is a meaningless serial — a German plate tells you where, never when.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
EV-distinct plates or suffixes (German E, CN green plates)
The trailing E marks an electrically powered vehicle under the 2015 Elektromobilitätsgesetz, unlocking bus lanes and free parking where municipalities allow it. The letter is optional — plenty of EVs drive unbadged — and the rest decodes like any German plate.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
farm vehicles/equipment where separately serialized
Decodes like any German plate — district prefix, meaningless serial. The green ink is the code: the keeper pays no vehicle tax, a rule in the law since 1956, one sentence after black-on-white. Mostly farm machinery, but the criterion is tax, not tractors.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
vintage/oldtimer regimes (German H, ES historico)
The trailing H — historisch — certifies a classic at least 30 years old and close to original condition, buying flat-rate tax and freedom of the low-emission zones. In front of it, the usual district and serial, capped at seven characters; the H rides on top.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
validity-window plates (German Saisonkennzeichen)
District and serial decode as normal; the meaning is the stacked pair of numbers at the right edge — first and last month of the operating season. Drive, or even street-park, outside that window and the plate is void.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
trade/garage plates bound to a business, not a vehicle
After the district code, the first two digits do the talking: every red dealer plate's number opens with 06. Block neighbours: 05 belongs to the technical inspectorates, 07 to the classics. The plate follows the business and hops between its cars.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
07 after the district code marks the red old-timer plate — classics commuting to rallies, shows and the workshop. Two digits from the dealer's 06, one crucial difference: this plate may only be used on the vehicle it was issued for.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
short-validity plates (transit, awaiting registration)
After the district code the number opens with 03 or 04, the short-term block, and the yellow field at the edge carries the expiry date. A plate born to die within five days.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
plates for vehicles leaving the jurisdiction permanently
The red-striped export plate for cars leaving Germany: the right band prints the insurance expiry date, and there is no district seal — the car is checking out, not in.
The district code reads as usual; then comes Germany's only serial with digits before the letter. The red stripe at the right edge is a date — the day the registration, and the insurance behind it, expires at the border.
In the sample, L stands for any letter and 9 for any digit.
civil government fleets with distinct series
Letters name the fleet, digits-only serials follow: BD is the Bundesdienst — parliament, ministries — THW the federal relief agency, BP the Bundespolizei (in 1956 the same BP meant the Bundespost). And one plate outranks them all: 1-1, the Bundestag President's car.
In the sample, 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
armed-forces registration systems
Y means the Bundeswehr precisely because it means nothing else: when the army needed a code in the 1950s, X and Y were the letters no German district would ever claim. Y took the troops, X later went to NATO's headquarters — one letter each, no geography at all.
In the sample, 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.
diplomatic corps (embassy) issuance, usually its own decode
A leading 0 has meant the diplomatic corps since 1956. The first number group encodes the mission, the last one rank — the 1 traditionally rides on the ambassador's own car. Embassy support staff get B or BN plates instead: Berlin or Bonn.
In the sample, 9 for any digit; the other characters are fixed.