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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“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—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)
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Thought of the others they would never meet
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I thought of London spread out in the sun,
Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat:”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1985)
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Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood
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—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)