device 1 the control unit 40 is connected with an input unit 41 via this input unit 41 the operator can set the required label length according to the type of container to be labeled the input unit 41 preferentially is a touch screen fig3 shows a bottle 10 together with a label 100 that has not yet been applied to the circumferential region of the bottle 10 the label has a leading region 101 and a tail region 102 for the attachment of the label 100 to the bottle 10 an adhesive 50 has been applied on the leading region 101 and the tail region 102 the label 100 has a length 103 which is smaller than the circumference of the container or bottle 10 respectively to be labeled as mentioned above the length 103 of the label 100 is about half the circumference of the bottle 10 fig4 shows a bottle 10 with the label 100 applied to a circumferential region 110 of the bottle 10 it is evident that the label 100 is not a wrap around label the label 100 only partially reaches round the circumference of the bottle 10 according to the invention it is possible to apply labels 100 to a large variety of containers and to design the labels in such a way that a reduction of the environmental impact and a.