I am German and doing my PhD in the management sciences, so I can judge the output, and there are many European institutions that are doing top research, also German ones. I have the feeling it's mostly about tech that we're not top notch. And even there, as a tech worker, I know really good output. I guess, that German universities are not really competing for a high ranking. This is part of German culture, we also don't have these standardized tests to qualify for university.
