Control plate without identification mark
02/21/2022
The approximate origin of the driver can usually be identified from the license plate. The abbreviation "ZH" stands for the canton of Zurich, "HH" for the Hanseatic city of Hamburg and "W" for the Austrian capital Vienna. But who would ever think that the letters "OE" stood for Saarland from 1949 to 1958? As no one knew the exact meaning even then, speculation about the origin of the pair was quick: "Ost-Elsass" or "Occupation Est" (French for "Eastern Occupation Zone") were the most popular suggestions. Jokers turned it into "Ober-Esel" or "Ordentlich entnazifiziert". Until the new millennium, everyone had a different explanation for the choice of place name. The Saarbrücker Zeitung had already announced the meaning of the two letters in 1949: none at all.
At that time, the small country in south-western Germany was under French occupation and belonged to the French customs territory. Accordingly, the logic of the new number plates introduced in 1949 followed the system in force in France until March 1950, according to which all départements were assigned a pair of letters in alphabetical order. When it was devised in 1928, the "O" was skipped because of its similarity to the "zero". When the Saarland had to be incorporated into the system after the war, the "O" was the only initial letter that was still free. However, it is still unclear why the numbering did not start with "OA" as with all other identifiers. Incidentally, the number 5 on the far right stands for the capital Saarbrücken. The car is a Simca 8.
P.S. We would like to thank Emons-Verlag for the photo from the book "Halbe Fünf und ganze Kerle - Das Saarland in den 50er-Jahren".
