This isn’t a vanity plate though. It’s a normal plate from someone in the Bitburg area.
I think it fits the definition perfectly.
A vanity plate or personalized plate […] is a special type of vehicle registration plate on an automobile or other vehicle. The owner of the vehicle pays extra money to have their own choice of numbers or letters, usually portraying a recognizable phrase, slogan, or abbreviation, on their plate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_plate
One difference is that in Germany you may only pay for the 2nd and 3rd part of the registration number. The 1st part is the area where the car is registered, like you said. Another difference is that in Germany vanity plates are so cheap that they’re the norm rather than the exception. The translation for vanity plate is Wunschkennzeichen btw, which is a term that most German speakers are familiar with.
My bad, I thought vanity plates didn’t exist in Germany as all the numberplates I’ve seen over there had the same form. Pretty cool how they made it work with the area part.
There’s a couple of good ones around here, like BIT CH, COC K and ZEL DA. I’ll post them if I see one.