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.
Which district is BM, MKK or SÜW? Every German district code, A to Z: Liste aller Kfz-Kennzeichen (in German).
Type any Germany registration — valid plates render below, on their real designs.
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Everything on this page — formats, validity, colours, the renders themselves — is one request away.
GET /api/v1/plates/de/match?plate=…
GET /api/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" }] }
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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.