VehiclesDB

Germany license plate: Diplomatic

Issued today 1956 to today. Diplomatic plates for car, van, and motorcycle, set by the Fahrzeug-Zulassungsverordnung (FZV). One of 13 Germany license plates.

Germany license plate, Diplomatic (1956 to today), sample 0-980302
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Format, years and the law

Format
0-999999, for example 0-980302 (9 any digit)

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.

0
Diplomatisches Corps (diplomatic corps)
B
Berlin (staff vehicle registered in Berlin)
BN
Bonn (staff vehicle registered in Bonn)

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued
1956 to today. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Diplomatic: diplomatic corps (embassy) issuance, usually its own decode. Issued for car, van, and motorcycle.
Colours
Characters #000000 Background #FFFFFF
Size
520 × 110 mm · every country's size
About this plate
GERMAN DIPLOMATIC SERIES, the zero prefix is 1956-original: Anlage IV C of the 14.3.1956 instrument reads, in its entirety, "0 Fahrzeuge des Diplomatischen Corps" (source line), making 0 the founding member of today's 0/B/BN trio. The 1956 digit cap was five; today six (§ 9 Abs. 1 Satz 7). Unlike Spain, where CD/OI/CC/TA each get their own background colour, Germany keeps the ordinary black-on-white design and signals status only through the prefix, so a German diplomatic plate is visually a normal plate.
How numbers are issued
Anlage 2 Nr. 3 states only that the prefix depends on the body and the status of the privileged person; the mission-number allocation inside the Erkennungsnummer is NOT in the FZV, see notes

Legal basis and sources

  1. Anlage 2 Nr. 3: '0, B oder BN, Diplomatische Vertretungen oder internationale Organisationen und in Abhängigkeit vom Status der bevorrechtigten Person', registered at Berlin or Bonn https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/fzv_2023/anlage_2.html
  2. § 9 Abs. 1 Satz 6-7 https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/fzv_2023/__9.html
  3. V. vom 14.3.1956, BGBl. I S. 199, Anlage IV 'C. Diplomatisches Corps: 0 Fahrzeuge des Diplomatischen Corps', with the § 23 Abs. 2 digits-only rule (max five digits then). In force 1.7.1956. PERIOD START. https://media.offenegesetze.de/bgbl1/1956/bgbl1_1956_15.pdf

This plate in your app

The series id is de-diplomatic. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of Germany's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/de \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "de-diplomatic")'
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