Postal codes in Germany, Postleitzahl (plural Postleitzahlen, abbreviated to PLZ; literally "postal guidance number"), since 1 July 1993 consist of five digits. The first two digits indicate the wider area, the last three digits the postal district.
Before reunification, both the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) used four-digit codes. Under a transitional arrangement following reunification, between 1989 and 1993 postal codes in the west were prefixed with 'W', e.g.: W-1000 30 (postal districts in western cities were separate from the postal code) and those in the east with 'O' (for Ost), e.g.: O-1xxx Berlin.
Postal customers with high mail volumes, or Großkunden have their own postal codes, separate from those used for postal districts or PO Box number ranges.
Postal regions do not necessarily follow state borders, so sorting by state is not practical.
The postal regions and some postal codes are:
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—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is the Night Mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.”
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“We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity which shines through all laws. Human nature expresses itself in them as characteristically as in statues, or songs, or railroads, and an abstract of the codes of nations would be an abstract of the common conscience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)