License plates starting with the letter B are issued in the registration area of the capital city Berlin.
© dpa
In Berlin, car license plates with a clearly recognizable connection to National Socialism are no longer issued - but cars with the banned license plates are presumably still on the road.
Since 1985, the letter combinations HJ, KZ, NS, SA and SS are blocked nationwide for reallocation. This was reported by the German Press Agency on Thursday (March 17, 2022) following a statement from the Senate Department for Urban Mobility.
In January of 2020, additional combinations of letters and numbers were added to the blacklist in Berlin: B-HH 18, B-HH 28, B-HH 8818, B-HH 1888, B-HH 1828, B-HH 1933, B-SH 18, B-SH 8818, B-SH 28 and B-SH 1888. The combinations are popular identifiers among right-wing extremists. "HH" means "Heil Hitler", "SH" stands for "Sieg Heil", "18", "88" and "28" refer to numbers in the alphabet and mean "Adolf Hitler", "Heil Hitler" and "Blood and Honour". "1933" stands for the year the National Socialists seized power in Germany.
As a reason for the addition of further blocked license plate combinations in 2020, the Senate Department cited the high priority of the fight against anti-democratic and anti-constitutional symbols in public space. The banned license plates would generally no longer be issued. However, license plates issued before the 2020 and 1985 could still be in circulation, as the ban does not take effect retroactively. The Senate Department estimated the number of banned license plates still registered in Berlin at around a dozen. Until the plates are returned, for example when the vehicle is decommissioned, they may continue to be used. After they have been returned, however, they will not be issued again.