The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community provides information on its website in a current press release:
ID cards within the EU are being harmonised. The harmonisation relates to both the design and the security standards of ID cards. The most striking feature will be the EU logo, which will be placed on the front.
All German ID cards applied for on or after 2 August 2021 will receive the new design and enhanced security standards. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community is thus implementing EU Regulation 2019/1157. The fees for the ID card in the new design will not change:
- 22.80 euros for applicants under 24 years of age,
- 37.00 euros for applicants aged 24 and over.
No obligation to exchange
Issued ID cards remain valid until the expiry date printed on the document. There is no need for an early exchange due to the change of design.
Protection of identity
As with passports, from 2 August 2021 it will be mandatory to provide fingerprints when applying for an ID card. It remains unchanged that children under the age of six do not have to provide fingerprints when applying for a passport or ID card.
Once the ID card has been produced and issued, the fingerprints are deleted both by the manufacturer and by the authorities.
As with passports, only security authorities in EU member states can read the fingerprints from the ID card for identification purposes if doubts remain about the identity after photo comparison; other countries worldwide do not have access to the fingerprint data in the ID card.
Braille sticker
Visually impaired people can apply to the citizens' offices for a transparent sticker with the Braille characters for "AD" (identity document) to be affixed to the back of the ID card. This makes it easier to distinguish the ID card from other cards in cheque card format. The sticker is designed for the ID card, electronic residence permit and eID card documents. This service is free of charge and is expected to be available from September 2021.
You can find the press release here:
https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/07/personalausweis.html