Here’s a nice example of a common sentence structure in written German:
Obwohl er eine andere Vorlage geplant hatte, erschien ihm die in ihrer Verdoppelung die Bildfläche vertikal teilende geometrische Form interessant genug, um sie weiterzuverfolgen.
Literally: Although he an other template planned had, seemed to him the in its doubling the picture surface vertically dividing geometric shape interesting enough, to it further to follow.
Decent translation: Although he had planned the template differently, the doubled geometric shape dividing the picture vertically seemed interesting enough for him to continue working with it.
(If you have any quibbles about that final version, bear in mind this sentence was part of a paragraph and my adjustments made sense in context.)
For Mark Twain, these kinds of sentences were among the targets of his ire; see this example from “The Awful German Language”:
Wenn er aber auf der Strasse der in Sammt und Seide gehüllten jetzt sehr ungenirt nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Regierungsräthin begegnet…
But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor’s wife met…
By the way, “The Awful German Language” does contain some errors, one of which you might spot in the sentence above. I’ve never gotten around to writing about them, though, because I expect such a piece would be tedious to write and equally tedious to read.
Far from being awful, this sentence structure is actually useful in German because it saves you from choppy sentences broken up by relative pronouns and commas. So although I found it a little irritating at first, I’ve come to appreciate it.
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