I had a few weeks of private German lessons, when I was in maybe 6th grade. One of the few things I remember from that is the word for speed limit: die Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. One of the longest real words (as opposed to deliberate affectations like antidisestablishmentarianism, or cool chemical names like paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde) I can recall coming across in any language.

It's kind of interesting that when faced with a need to explain a new concept, French strings together a long phrase with all the little connecting words to make it totally grammatical, English strings together a short phrase by making nouns function as adjectives and such, and German runs all the needed words together into one blob.