h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: German License Plates - A47125974
Author: Yelbakk - U133566

Entry: German License Plates - A47125974
Author: Yelbakk - U133566
With some input by Mat - U11487777

This article is about German license plates.
Comments are welcome. So are corrections, additions, thoughts and money.

Y.

The footnote on your example of a number plate is confusing, because it looks like it is part of the number. I thought at first that all licenses had a superscript digit as well as the three other digits. You'd be better to put the footnote as a comment just before or after the example, or make it a footnote on something in the main text.

An enjoyable article! I agree with Gnomon that having a footnote in the example licence plate is confusing, but this can be easily rectified. Another minor matter is that you sometimes spell 'licence' in English, but sometimes also in American, 'License'. It would be useful to be consistent, and stick with 'Licence'.
I also wondered whether you could include a definition of silvicultural?
Other than those minor matters, a very well written article which I enjoyed reading far more than I had expected! Well done.

<BB<

Like <BB< I found this Entry contained more than I was expecting. Good stuff

It was defiately more iteresting than I thought. Very good concept for a guide entry informative and funny. Good one.

Since I could read I have been fascinated by number plates, and since I first put my foot on German soil in 1973 I have amazed at how simple the German system is (and how easily the East German towns were assimilated into the system).

I ought to read the entry before I comment any more though!

OK - I've read it. It is great fun and explains a lot.

There are a couple of questions I would ask myself on reading it, which you can perhaps answer at some point.

Of the following, the first paragraph or two refer to the number plates as they are today. The rest you can ignore if you didn't want this to be an entry about the history of the number plate system.

You do not point out that the car has to be re-registered if the owner moves to another town. I think this is is a very big point for this readership, as, in the UK, (don't know about other places,) the number is attached to the car, regardless of who owns it or where it is registered. (You can assess the value of a used British car online simply by typing in the registration number, which remains unchanged for the car's whole life).

Also, in smaller towns, it is very common to have the second set of letters the owner's initials. We got that without even asking for it with our present car. The number at the end is the year of my husband's birth even, so it really is very personalised!


...the historical bit (optional)

It perhaps also ought to be made clear that this numbering system were only introduced well after the second world war. In fact, the system was possibly devised by the Allied occupying forces. This is only conjecture on my part - would need thorough checking. (I've been yikesed before for calling it an occupation, but if you had been in Mannheim in the 70s, you would certainly feel as if the place was run by the Americans) If you like, I can send a photo of my husband's family car when he was a small boy. It's in black and white. They had a volkswagen with a number plate indicating that they lived in the French zone.

Another reason I think that the Allies might have had something to do with the development of the new system of numbering was because I remember hearing somewhere that they also re-organised the Trade Unions. Germany had 16 or so new Trade Unions at the end of the 1940s, much simpler than the previous system, which, possibly, had been done away with during the third Reich. This is all entirely conjecture on my part, but it's things I've picked up along the way here.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with the number plates we are discussing. I'm not sure if the first number plates *ever* weren't even allocated in Germany - after all, it's where cars were invented. I've found a mention that the first number plate in Berlin was issued in 1892, the first one ("1") in Baden in 1896. Baden is the home of Daimler and Benz, well, near enough. According to several sites, a universal system for the whole of Germany was in force by 1906. And, according to some further cursory googling, the first number plate in Britain ("A1") was issued in 1903, New York had its own number plates in 1901, but the US, too, started a national system in 1903.

The system now in force was finalised in 1956. Obviously in 1989 new letters had to be found for the towns of East Germany.

Have a look at http://www.historische-autonummernschilder.de (in German)

Sorry, Yelbakk, I'm getting carried away here.

So what format did the East German number plates take? Is it worth mentioning them in brief, and any previous number plate systems used before the war?
Or perhaps just mention that the current system has been in place since ...?

<BB<

'I think this is is a very big point for this readership, as, in the UK, (don't know about other places,) the number is attached to the car, regardless of who owns it or where it is registered.'

Not sure how it is in Germany but usually it's very similar to here. If the owner of the car sells this car and buys a new one he takes the plate of the previous car for the new car, too. (of course registering it to the new car)

Are there also 'Wechselkennzeichen' in Germany? Meaning you have 2 cars but only one plate for both (you can then of course only drive one of these cars at the same time).

Yes - I think there was just a change in the law with regard to those, Tav.

Interesting and well-written

You also have things like "SH-30000", for the police in Schleswig-Holstein.
Ah, and I've also seen a plate with small numbers like "03 10" one above the other on the right. This means the car is for use between March and October only. Is this worth mentioning? I don't think it exists in France, for example. (On the other hand, up to a few months ago I wouldn't have thought it existed in Germany either.)

I'm another one who has to say I didn't think it was going to be as interesting as it was. I didn't know the bit about the Hanseatic League: I'd noticed the Hamburg "HH" before, and assumed that one of the H's stood for "Hafen" (port/harbour).

A picture for reference would be really useful when reading the Entry - I'm not sure about using a photo of someone's real registration plate (privacy/identity issues), but is there anywhere you could find a link to a mock-up picture of a typical German plate?

(Oh, and I laughed at Footnote 7. I was about to protest that I quite like Hannover until I read that. )

For a picture (Post 12): or a fictitious plate from a movie or series?

KB, I'm sure we can make a mock-up picture.

Thanks for all the positive feedback .

I have cleared up the licenc/se confusion (I hope I got them all), and replaced "silvicultural" with "forestry-related".
For all the other ideas, I will need some more time. Thanks for all the input. I never knew about the British system, so I will include those bits, as well.

Now... my next steps include finding suitable hootoo article to link to from this one. I would be happy about any suggestions.

Y.

There would be no problem you using that photo I have. Neither the car nor the number plates have existed for nearly 50 years now, and my parents-in-law, in whose name they were registered, have been dead and gone for well over 10 years.

Bossel used to have a picture of his new number plate on his page (before the BBC). He was such a keen hootooer that he got the number "DA-4242" (He couldn't have the 3 letters DNA because you only have 2 letters in 2nd place on the plates, as Yelbakk has explained.)

F53347?thread=147693?thread=&skip=11&show=20

Hi Yellbakk

Thanks for all the work you've done following the reviews of this Entry - and many thanks to the people that have been reviewing this piece as well

Would you also make a change to the title of the Entry itself please?


Lanzababy

Ooops... thanks, Lanzababy, for spotting that. I never even checked the title.

So, I changed that now. More work to follow to include the ideas produced by all the others in this convo.

Y.

It took me some time to sit down and work in some of your ideas. So here we are now. Any more suggestions?

Thanks again for your input.

Y.