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The compound word (; ) is an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is possible in many Germanic languages. According to the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records, it is the longest word published in the German language, having 79 letters.
It was allegedly a suborganization of the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft in pre-war Vienna, Austria, a shipping company for transporting passengers and cargo on the Danube. The DDSG still exists today in the form of the now private companies DDSG-Blue Danube Schifffahrt GmbH (passenger transport) and the DDSG-Cargo GmbH. However, there is no evidence that the suborganization ever existed.
Long compound words are used sparsely in German conversation, but considerably more often than in English. A pre- World War I Danube steamship captain could be referred to as more naturally than with the somewhat contrived title ("Danube steamboating association captain"). According to the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records, the longest German word in everyday usage is ("legal protection insurance companies") at 39 letters.
The German spelling reform of 1996 abolished the rule that compound words with triple consonants coalesce them into double consonants. The reform affects noun adjunct , itself a compound of Schiff ("ship") and Fahrt ("transportation"), which is now spelled (with three ""s). A modern spelling would use 80 letters, . However, as the compound is (allegedly) a historical name, the original spelling with 79 letters is kept.
The compound word contains the uncommon plural . ("electricity") is normally used only in the singular.
Donau
dampf
schiff
fahrts
elektrizitäten
haupt
betriebs
werk
bau
unter
beamten
gesellschaft
Danube
steam
ship
transport's
electricities
head
operation's
work
building
sub
officials
association