Germany's longest compound word consigned to history
Mark Twain said they were not words, but "alphabetic processions … marching majestically across the page": the compound words the German language uses to capture precise or complex meanings, which are a cause of irritation for novices and a delight for those who manage to master the tongue.
But one compound noun has proved too much for German bureacrats, who have decided to ditch what had been celebrated as the longest word in the German tongue. Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz has now been confined to the linguistic history books by authorities in Mecklenburg Vorpommern.
The word, which means "the law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef", was introduced in 1999, during the BSE crisis. It was given the abbreviation RkReÜAÜG – which was itself unpronouncable.
But the 63-letter word was deemed no longer necessary after the EU halted BSE-testing on healthy cattle at abattoirs. The big question they are asking is which word will now take its place. "It was until now the longest authentic word in German usage," Anatol Stefanowitsch, a Berlin professor of linguistics research told Die Welt.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/03/indfleischetikettierungsberwachungsaufgabenbertragungsgesetz-word-germany
= new reply since forum marked as read
it's being used all over the world by people who've never heard of it. 
although I doubt it gets used much. 
the word is considered terribly racist. Do not use it.
oops, meant to respond to OldEurope. 
