I noticed some people write their german towns like that “Vechta, 06, Germany” or “Bad Aibling, 02, Germany” or “Hamburg, 04, Germany”. I want to understand where do these people get numbers from. I understand that it means their states where Bavaria is 2, Lower Saxonia is 6 but I was trying to find the list of states and their numbers like that and I couldn’t find. I found only this: https://www.bmel.de/DE/themen/ernaehrung/lebensmittel-kennzeichnung/pflichtangaben/eierkennzeichnung.html but it doesn’t match those that people put in my examples.
So where is this order of states from? Maybe there’s a name for it. I tried to Google but couldn’t find anything.
2 comments
I have never seen anyone write their city like that. So you should probably ask the people who use these numbers.
The closest I can think of is the beginning number of [Postleitzahlen](https://medien.dastelefonbuch.de/tb-cms/Redakteur/user_upload/PLZ_Karte_2.jpg), but these don’t match your examples.
the only instance of small-ish numbers that go after the city name I can think of has nothing to do with states:
decades ago, when postcodes had only 4 instead of now 5 digits, mailing addresses often included a district number, to help route the letter to the correct distribution center. these are subdivisions below the city level. the respective address line would start with the postcode, followed by the city, then the district number, and optionally you can finish with the name of the district.
but with today’s system, there is more than one postcode per city and so these district numbers are no longer needed.