german registration numbers/ number plates

[richard]

hi this may be or not a question for stuart but does anyone know how to understand period german plates ? from an english plate we can tell the area,year and usually within a few months the date of original registration. the number then , in theory, remains on the vehicle for life.  as i understand it most other countries have a different system of new plates every year. my point being can we look at period photos and tell in which area and time period  the vehicle was first " on the road " i seem to have identified a few pointers i.e. stuttgart 1956 seem to be black plates starting w21, 22 or 23 followed by a white stuttgart roundel in white followed by four figures - brutsches and heinkels in the early photos carry these type of plates mainly but not always . they were both built in stuttgart.
this all sounds very nerdy but there is a point to my question. can i identify the date of registration by a number plate and can i from a set of plates identify what date they are or even what vehicle they were issued to ?

[Stuart Cyphus]

 All German plates, (pre-war, Post-war East, post-war West, & post 1990 Unified) are permanantly issued to the individual car, the same as UK plates, but the Garman system, above ours, is regionalised, thus if the owner & car moves to a new region the other side of Germany, he needs to re-register his car in that new district. I belive this has always been the case in West Germany from early days to today.

 However it should be concidered that West Germany (as the area we are dealing with here) went though two basic changes of plate types between 1948 & 1990....

 "Type one" is the white on black plates of 1948- 1956, such as appears in this Brutch picture.

 "Type Two" is the black on white 'DIN' plates of 1956-1990, similer to those 'unified' plates still being used today.

  This Brutch, having a "W" as its prefix, would have been registered in the district of Baden-Wurttemberg. Where's that in relation to Stuttgart?  Additional: the following two numbers, in this case "24", is a code for whichever town/city within the main district the plate was issued from.

 I'm not sure as yet if it is possibly to "date" such plates by their serial numbers, but I would have thought it WAS possible. I'll check tommorow when I dig through my general worldwide plates details. (all the above being taken directly out of my head as it were) However, I do know that the Type One plates were originaly prefixed with two letters, the initial letter being either an "B" for British Zone,  "A" for American Zone &  "F" for French Zone, whilst the secondary letter was the "district" as already mentioned.   Into late 1955 - early 1956, these initial "zone" prefixes were dropped. This Brutch picture does not have a "zone" initial letter, but only an "district" area prefix, therefore it does check out as 1956....

 So to recap:  a white on black West German plate is read as follows, A/W-25-2345  =   Zone/District - Town - Individual serial.

 That reminds me, I haven't got a white on black 1948-1956 West German plate in my collection. Anyone got one they don't want?  

[marcus]

Great info Stuart! What were Russian Zone plates like?

[richard]

thank you so much stewart !exactly the information i wanted and so detailed i thought it might be your thing. will now digest it all. i do have such a plate but its of this series for my 1956 brutsch . will look on ebay as with all things.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Russian Zone plates are of course East German DDR plates Marcus    Naturally, being Eastern Bloc, they're utterly complicated to explain, but the following is a good website for anyone intrested in the differing types of all German plates through the ages...   

http://www.hegis.de/home.htm