My guess as to why Germans lump compounds together in one word is that their strict modifier declension system doesn't allow for newly created modifiers.
For instance, animal is not usually an adjective, nor are body or removal. And they're not all just stringing up to modify law, either. Animal modifies body, and animal body modifies removal. Therefore it seems weird to give them all the gender ending of the final noun in the compound, law. Make them all into one word and you avoid the declension problem because none of those words have to have an ending now.