Road signs in Germany follow the design of that set out in the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.
Traffic signs, road markings, installations, and symbols used in Germany are prescribed by the Road Traffic Regulation (, ) and the Traffic Signs Catalog (, ).
çç 39 to 43 of the regulate the effect of traffic signs and installations. Annexes 1 to 3 illustrate most warning, regulatory, and directional signs and annex 4 illustrates the traffic installations. Other traffic signs and installations not specified in the , primarily specific supplementary signs, are published in the .
The latest version of the was issued in May 2017 as the annex to the General Administrative Rules for the Road Traffic Regulation (, ).
The , the and the are supported by technical rules, mostly published by the (), especially:
Each sign has an assigned number. The suffix number after the hyphen refers to the variation of the sign; the suffix on signs with variable numbers is the number depicted on the sign (for speed limits, maximum heights, etc.).
The used typeface is the DIN 1451 font.
The first set of unified road signs in Germany was introduced in 1927 in the Weimar Republic with the . It consisted of only 6 warning signs.
In 1934, this regulation was replaced with the Imperial Road Traffic Regulation (), which was acccompanied by an administrative ordinance () with a set of 37 road signs.
The Imperial Road Traffic Regulation was replaced in 1938 with a regulation called "Regulation about the behavior in Road Traffic" (), abbreviated "Road Traffic Regulation" (). This regulation was amended a few times until the occupation of Germany in 1945.
The of 1938 remained in force until 1971 in West Germany (with major amendmendts in 1953 and 1956) and until 1956 in East Germany.
Germany signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signal in 1968, together with the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. The adoption of the provisions of both conventions led to the development of a new which entered into force in 1971 in West Germany.
The first sign with symbols of the current design is Sign 325 (residential street), which has been introduced in 1980. In 1992 this design has been applied to all road signs of the .
These signs were in use until 1992.