1. Legal basis: license plates must not offend public decency
The Fahrzeug-Zulassungsverordnung (FZV), the German vehicle registration ordinance, stipulates in § 8 Abs. 1 FZV that the registration authority allocates to the vehicle a license plate consisting of the Unterscheidungszeichen (the district code of the administrative district) and an identification number. The ordinance expressly provides that license plates which offend public decency may not be allocated. The FZV does not conclusively define which combinations are indecent in an individual case – the decision rests with the respective registration authority on the basis of decrees and administrative regulations of its federal state.
This leads to the most important insight in practice: there is a small core of letter sequences that is uniformly not allocated anywhere in Germany, and beyond that a large number of regional blocks that differ from one federal state to another and in some cases even from one district to the next.
2. Letter sequences not allocated nationwide
The abbreviations of National Socialist organisations are uniformly excluded as identification letters by all German registration authorities. This block applies regardless of the chosen district code and regardless of the digits that follow.
- HJ – Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth)
- KZ – Konzentrationslager (concentration camp)
- NS – Nationalsozialismus (National Socialism)
- SA – Sturmabteilung
- SS – Schutzstaffel
3. Letter and number codes additionally blocked by many registration authorities
Beyond the nationwide core, most federal states have issued their own block lists. These are not uniform, which is why a combination may be freely allocated in one district while it is blocked in the neighbouring district. The following codes are blocked by many registration authorities, but not everywhere:
- SD – Sicherheitsdienst of the SS (blocked by many registration authorities)
- IS – abbreviation of the terrorist organisation "Islamic State" (blocked in numerous federal states since around 2015)
- AH 18 or AH 1889 – initials and year of birth of Adolf Hitler (blocked by many registration authorities)
- HH 88 – the number code "88" as a cipher for the eighth letter of the alphabet, in combination with "HH" (blocked by many registration authorities, although "HH" naturally remains admissible as the district code for Hamburg)
- Number codes 18, 28, 88, 188, 888, 1488, 1933 and 1939 – blocked depending on the federal state, particularly in connection with certain letters
4. District codes cannot be blocked
Important for understanding: the Unterscheidungszeichen (district code) is assigned to the administrative district under § 8 FZV and is not subject to the decency check. The district code "HH" for Hamburg, for example, is entirely regular, as are "S" (Stuttgart) or "N" (Nuremberg). The block check relates to the identification number, i.e. the one or two identification letters and the one- to four-digit number sequence. Some registration authorities additionally check the interplay between the district code and the identification letters, so that readings such as "S-S" or "N-S" are excluded in individual districts.
5. Formal limits of the identification number under Anlage 4 FZV
In addition to the content-related blocks, there are formal requirements that every desired combination must meet. The identification number consists of one or two letters and a number with one to four digits. Umlauts (Ä, Ö, Ü) are not permitted in the identification number; they occur exclusively in district codes such as "SÜW" or "HÖS". The total number of characters on the plate is limited to eight; for E, H and seasonal plates, the available space is reduced accordingly.
A combination that violates these formal rules cannot be reserved, regardless of any block list. The live checker on Wunschkennzeichen24.digital takes these requirements into account automatically and shows you only combinations that can actually be allocated from the stock of your registration authority.
6. Practical tips for your custom plate search
If your initials happen to match a blocked letter sequence, a simple trick often helps: swap the order, use only one identification letter or add a meaningful number that is not on a block list. Using the question mark ("?") as a wildcard in the configurator, you can also search specifically for available alternatives that come as close as possible to your wish.
Please also note that a reservation is not a guarantee of allocation. The final check is always carried out by the registration authority at the moment of registration. Should an authority nevertheless reject a previously reserved combination, our selection link gives you the option, free of charge, of choosing an available replacement combination.