Afraid I don't speak any German.
What are these intriguingly long words?
(sarcastic fringehead feet of clay, buns of steel, head of lettuce, Mon 9 May 2011, 22:07, 1 reply)

Not so easy to translate
The more sub-words there are the harder it is to distill down to exactly what they mean, but:

Donau  dampf  schiffahrts  elektrizitäten  haupt  betriebswerk  bau  unter  beamten  gesellschaft
-----  -----  -----------  --------------  -----  ------------  ---  -----  -------  ------------
  |      |        |              |           |         |         |     |       |          |
Danube steam   boating       eletrical     main      depot     build  sub   official   society

Or, the association for junior officials of the main electrical servicing depot for steam ships on the Danube. That's a famous contender for longet german word.

Mine was:

Bezirks  verordneten  versammlungen  wahl
-------  -----------  -------------  -----
   |          |             |          |
Borough   delegate     assemblies    vote

Parish council elections, which I'm entitled to vote in.

EDIT: Oh. and Rechtschriebreform is Orthographyreform, or the spelling changes they brought in a decade or so ago.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Mon 9 May 2011, 23:02, closed)

Thanks. Funnily enough
I remember my fellow pupils who were studying German quoting an example given by their teacher - something like a steam powered mechanical shovel? I guess the need for new terms around the time of the industrial revolution has something to do with it.
(sarcastic fringehead feet of clay, buns of steel, head of lettuce, Tue 10 May 2011, 8:58, closed)