Handicapped placecard in Germany?

No you need a German one you get this either at the local authority where you stay as a resident.

If you are no resident but a tourist just go to the Einwohnermeldeamt where you stay at the moment.

In Germany recognized are only German ones and those of other EU countries.

EDIT unlike what Celeste rants Germany is not unfriendly towards handicaped at all also the US do not recognize German handicaped cards so why should we recognize American ones?!

Celeste if you do not like it here just go home to the US instead of annoying everybody with your rubbish silly comments about a country you live in as a GUEST!!!

No you need a German handicapped card you get this at the local authority and unlike another answerer says this is no big deal at all.

If you follow the advice of that other person you are sure to get into trouble.

NOTE: If the answer above mine looks like it from me, has lots of positive ratings, and contradicts what is stated below, IT'S FAKE, and part of a cheap childish campaign to gag me.

If you click on the other "Celeste" profile you may wonder why anybody in their right mind would have a profile that portrays themselves as obese, ugly and sexually frustrated. Please note that this is part of a vengeful childish group plot to discourage people from travelling to East Germany, for whatever personal vindictive hate reasons they may have. Some of them claim to be anti-Nazis although they are not behaving any different than Neo-Nazis themselves.

Even if this answer receives over 100 negative ratings, I encourage you to decide for yourself. Being born in Germany does not make anyone an automatic "expert" at anything.

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Unfortunately Germany is, compared to the U.S., a disability-hostile country.

They only recognize there own national disability vehicle ID cards, and uniform European recognition is "still out for the vote". The official German tourism board offers the following explanation on their webpage:

"In Germany there are a number of parking concessions for drivers with disabilities or drivers of people with disabilities. Seh-Netz e.V.'s portal "Barrierefreier Tourismus Info" (currently only available in German) has detailed information on this.EU countries issue a standard parking card for people with disabilities, which is recognised in Germany.

Disabled travellers from non-EU countries who wish to apply for temporary disabled parking permits should get in touch with the appropriate road traffic authority for their destination in Germany. In German towns with no district authority, this would be the local council (Stadtverwaltung) - otherwise it is the district authority (Kreisverwaltung).

Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs can advise travellers on who they should contact. Applicants will need to supply a form of disability ID and a passport-sized photograph. They may also need medical documentation regarding their disabled status. It is advisable to bring along a German translation of any non-German documents."

... which means you would be spending most of your vacation time sitting around some town government office that doesn't even have a wheelchair ramp to issue a temporary disabled permit for that particular town. Of course you would have to repeat this procedure in every town you visit, and you might get the following refusals:

1) You have to go to city-hall approved physician to get an affidavit that both of your legs are really missing (!). The doctor will be open between 7:00-7:30 a.m. on Tuesday of the first week next month. When you give us the affadavit, then you can send you the permit in three weeks.

2) You're not registered as a legal alien in this town. We can only give legal aliens, and not tourists disabled parking permits.

3) You see a sign on the door which reads something like: "This is the office for disabled parking permits and is only open between 6:24 and 6:27 am on Thursdays and between 11:30 - 11:33 a.m. on alternate Fridays, during full moons. Please come back later."

Okay, No. 3 was exaggerated, but No. 1 wasn't. I had a friend in Bavaria who lost both of his legs and had a permit and the city refused to renew his permit without medical proof of disability, even though he had no legs. Makes you wonder if civil servants are not only stupid, but all blind!

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MY SNEAKY TIP:

Bring the official disabled card for your car you already have with you anyway. Paste an American flag sticker on it, and put it in the windshield when you park on a disabled parking place. The metermaid might have pity on you, and not write you a ticket.

But even if she does, so what? You will not have pay the ticket, because you are not a resident of Germany. And as a non-resident, you cannot be held liable for things which are "ordinance violations". You can only be held liable for things like speeding violations and running a red light. City rules and ordinances don't apply to tourists. I know! My German husband still owes the Dutch about 200 dollars for forgetting to feed parking meters, and there is not a lot the Dutch can do about it to collect it.

But what about the rental car company? They've got my credit card number, and they'll back-charge me!

Maybe they can try, but they won't get away with it! The city will send the rental car company the violation ticket, because the rental car company legal owns the car. Legally the rental company has to either pay the ticket or give the name and address of the person who used their rental car. Then the city has to send you the violation ticket to you, which you can paste in your scrapbook if you want to, or toss in the trash.

The rental company might think they can pay any fines by proxy for you, and might even have it in their rental contract, and simply put it on your credit card. If they do that, just call up your credit card company and tell them the bookings are unauthorized, and have the payment reversed. The German car rental company has no right to pay traffic or ordinance violations by proxy, contract or not, because you have the right to dispute the German government accusation against you (like what if it wasn't you who parked the car?). That's German law.

IMPORTANT: Don't do this Munich or Berlin! In Munich or Berlin they're more street wise, and will simply impound your car instead of giving you a ticket, and you'll have to pay about 400 Euro to get it out of the impound yard again.

What if I come back to Germany next year? Won't they arrest me on the spot?

No. They can't, because you are not a resident, and they have no jurisdiction over non-residents who violate city ordinances.