Since 1906 there was a law that was valid for the whole country. These plates had black lettering on white background.

During the WWII the plates had a red seal showing an eagle with the Nazi emblem.

After the war Germany was divided in the American, British, French and Russian zone. The governments of these zones issued various types of license plates (the most common type had white lettering on black background). E.g. the m/c plate of the American zone is a really "nice to have" plate. The lettering is arranged on two lines. The first line shows the letters "BY" (= Bavaria) and the second line is the serial number. The colors are black lettering on orange background. The plate is about as big as an American passenger plate. The specialty is, that the upper left and right edges were cut off!!

Since 1956 the plates have the design mentioned at the beginning.

Since 1995 the Euro-style plates with the colored seal are available.

 
Special Issues:

German army: Prefix "Y" followed by a up to six digits numeral code. On the left side is a black/red/yellow tab (= the German flag).

Federal official vehicles: Prefix "BP" for postal services, "DB" for railroad services, "BG" for frontier police.

Provincial official vehicles (e.g. police): The first letter is the code of the city/county, followed by a numeral code.

Agricultural vehicles: Same system like the passenger plates, but green lettering on white background.

Temporary plates: Same system like the provincial official vehicles, but red lettering on white background.

Mopeds: Small plates with white background. The color of lettering changes every year. These plates are only issued by the insurance-companies because no taxes must be paid on such vehicles.