# Germany license plate: Standard 1956

> The Germany standard 1956 license plate: format LL-LL 9999, for example QR-FK 4478, 1956 to 2000, car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, and trailer.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/germany/standard-1956 · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [Germany license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/germany) (13 registration series).

![Germany license plate, Standard 1956 (1956 to 2000)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/de/de-standard-1956/germany-license-plate-standard-1956.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LL-LL 9999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 1956–2000 |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, trailer |
| Plate size | 520 × 110 mm |
| Colours | background #FFFFFF; characters #000000; border #000000 |
| Checking a registration | The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued. |
| Series id | `de-standard-1956` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/germany/standard-1956) |

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.

Sources:

- [Verordnung zur Änderung von Vorschriften des Straßenverkehrsrechts vom 14.3.1956, BGBl. I S. 199 — § 23 Abs. 2 (district prefix + Erkennungsnummer, Anlage I plan), § 60 Abs. 1 (black on white), Anlage II (the five serial blocks), Anlage V (plate drawings, 520x110 einzeilig), § 72a (in force 1.7.1956 for newly plated vehicles; old plates until 1.7.1958).](https://media.offenegesetze.de/bgbl1/1956/bgbl1_1956_15.pdf)
- [32. ÄndVStVR vom 20.7.2000, BGBl. I S. 1090 — PERIOD END: Euro form mandatory for plates newly fitted from 1.11.2000, so DIN-era issuance ends 31.10.2000; 'Kennzeichen, die vor dem 1. November 2000 zugeteilt worden sind ... gelten weiter' — ended-but-on-the-road, stated in the instrument itself.](https://media.offenegesetze.de/bgbl1/2000/bgbl1_2000_34.pdf)

## About this plate

The pre-1956 occupation-era systems (white-on-black, 1948 four-zone codes) are OUT OF SCOPE for L1 (historical depth is L4); the 1956 instrument's own transitional gives them until 1.7.1958.

## How the region is encoded

§ 23 Abs. 2 StVZO (1956), verbatim: the Kennzeichen contains "das Unterscheidungszeichen für den Verwaltungsbezirk", "aus einem bis drei Buchstaben nach dem Plan in Anlage I", the district list was IN the StVZO in 1956 (Anlage I, ~600 codes printed in BGBl. 1956 I Nr. 15) and only later delegated to Bundesanzeiger publication (§ 9 Abs. 3 FZV today). Decode rows for withdrawn 1956-era codes need period discipline; the code list grew again in 1990/91 when the new Länder joined the system.

## Other standard plates here

- [Standard](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/germany/standard) (1995 to today)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/de/de-standard-1956.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/germany?series=de-standard-1956
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/de` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "de-standard-1956"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb