plates. Having abolished the old number plates in 1945, the Soviet occupation forces issued plates with Cyrillic characters at first. Motorcycles were issued БM (=BM, 1945–1946) and ГM (GM, 1945–1947). Cars, lorries and buses received ГФ (=GF, 1945–1946) and БГ (=BG, 1945–1947). These were replaced on the insistence of the western powers, first to KB for Kommandatura Berlin and, in the Eastern part of the city, to GB in 1948. Vehicles of occupation/NATO forces The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), initially occupation forces, later NATO elements, issued servicemen with plates carrying white letters and numerals on a black background for their personal vehicles. These cars stood out in comparison to the black on white German plates, and following the terrorist murder of a British serviceman, identified when returning to his car with BAOR licence plates, servicemen had to opt for their cars to carry either UK plates (generally right-hand drive vehicles) or German plates (generally left-hand drive vehicles). During the time that Belgian forces were stationed in West Germany, white on black plates similar to the BAOR plates were used. US Forces vehicles The American Forces have tried to “blend in” their servicepersons′ private vehicles in another way. Starting in 2000, they adopted a type of which closely resembled the German plates yet bore area codes which were at that time not assigned to any district, i.e. AD, AF and HK, later also IF and QQ. These codes still stood out, especially as they bore the NATO symbol instead of the EU′s circle of stars and the registration seal candidly read instead of, e.g. . Since 2006, the vehicles in question bear with regular German area codes, generally referring to the district of their official stationing. East Germany, DDR The German Democratic Republic issued their own style of licence plates since 1953. The first letter would indicate the or district where the vehicle was registered. These initials, however, did not refer to the name of the Bezirk but were distributed almost alphabetically from North to South. After German reunification in 1990, the DDR plates were soon abolished and the West German system introduced, starting in 1991 and completed in 1993. Even before this transition phase, it could be observed that licence plates in GDR scheme were produced with West German typeface on the respective machinery. West Germany In July 1956 the current system was introduced in then West Germany,