The municipalities designate a certain number of parking spaces for use by severely disabled persons with exceptional walking disabilities and blind persons, especially in the city centers. This is done with the blue P sign and an additional sign with the wheelchair user symbol or an additional sign explicitly requiring the display of a parking permit.
Authorization to use these specially marked parking spaces is evidenced by a special parking permit in light blue or blue color. The permit must be displayed in the vehicle in a manner that is clearly legible from the outside (e.g. on the dashboard).
The required exemption and parking permit can be applied for at the municipality of residence. The display of the severely disabled person's ID card or other ID cards (e.g. orange parking permit) alone is not sufficient to prove the authorization to use the specially marked disabled parking spaces. Only the light blue (European) or dark blue (endorsement: "BY only") parking permit is valid here. Parking permits "By only" are no longer issued, but remain valid until the expiration date indicated on them.
For the aforementioned group of people, the opportunity to use appropriately signposted parking spaces in centrally located places is not a privilege, but merely a compensation for a very difficult living situation. For many of these severely disabled people, an occupied disabled parking space means that they may have to drive home again without having achieved anything. Because of their severe disability, they cannot, for example, simply get out of the car to see if someone could move an (illegally) parked vehicle at short notice.
For this reason, the police pay special attention to these parking spaces and consistently have vehicles parked there without authorization towed away.
If an applicant does not meet the requirements for the issuance of the blue parking permit for severely disabled persons, the granting of parking facilitation through the issuance of an exemption according to § 46 Para. 1 No. 11 StVO with the issuance of an orange parking permit may be considered in the case of certain illnesses. This special permit can also grant parking facilities (e.g. free parking at a parking meter), but it does not give the right to use the specially marked disabled parking spaces ("wheelchair symbol").