Before the outbreak of World War II, it had been adopted by the following countries:* Belgium (1924)* Netherlands (1925)* Norway (1926)* Finland (1927)* Switzerland (1929)* Sweden (1930)* Soviet Union (1934)* Hungary (1938)* Italy (1939)During World War II, the standard was adopted by Uruguay (1942), Argentina (1943) and Brazil (1943), and afterwards spread to other countries:* Spain (1947)* Austria (1948)* Iran (1948)* Romania (1949)* Japan (1951)* Denmark (1953)* Czechoslovakia (now Czech republic and Slovakia) (1953)* Israel (1954)* Portugal (1954)* Yugoslavia (1956)* India (1957)* Poland (1957)* United Kingdom (1959)* Republic of Ireland (1959)* Venezuela (1962)* New Zealand (1963)* Iceland (1964)* Mexico (1965)* South Africa (1966)* France (1967)* Peru (1967)* Turkey (1967)* Chile (1968)* Greece (1970)* Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) (1970)* Singapore (1970)* Bangladesh (1972)* Thailand (1973)* Barbados (1973)* Australia (1974)* Ecuador (1974)* Colombia (1975)* Kuwait (1975)By 1975 so many countries were using the German system that it was established as an ISO standard, as well as the official United Nations document format.