Although this is true, it is only half the story and school system.
You leave out the Fachoberschule, Berufsoberschule (name and curriculum depends on the state) and Berufsschule/Apprenticeship system. While the biggest factor in if someone will go on to study later in life will be if a student attended the Gymnasium from 5th grade on, every single person in Germany has many options to get to a university or university of applied sciences. As for the the schools I mentioned before:
Students from the Hauptschule (until 9th grade) and Realschule (until 10th grade) can attend the Fachoberschule, depending on a certain core GPA and extra coursework for Hauptschul students. Which is leading towards the 12th or 13th grade, depending on if the student wants to attend a university of applied science or a university.
Furthermore, students who do an apprenticeship after the 9th or 10th grade can enter a Berufsoberschule with successful completion of their apprenticeship. These students are often allowed to skip the 11th grade (same curriculum as the Fachoberschule).
Whereas, I have to fully agree that it is hard to switch from Hauptschule or Realschule to a Gymnasium, but it is not impossible and I know multiple people who studied at universities, while starting out at the Hauptschule.
Came here to post this. I feel like the idea here was partly influenced by the 5.0 brand.
It is still a little different, since, afair, 5.0 just cut their ad costs and thus are able to provide the beer cheaper. Which for them I would think was a success.
For me though, it would be weird, especially in Germany/Bavaria, to buy a beer without brand identity. I could see this in the US, but not in Germany.
My main gripe with the 5.0 bear is not the lack of brand but more the fact that the beer is pretty bad (also living in Bavaria).
Not sure the brand-less concept would work out for beer, since there are clear personal preferences that make no-brand beer difficult. There's less taste preferences in other products, that's why store-brand butter etc. is popular.
This is simply not true (At least not generally). Just recently the German Police shot a Drug Dealer while he was running away from undercover police officers. Shot was in the back of the head and as far as I remember they even said it was justified, since by German law it is allowed to use deadly force against a fleeing criminal... Sounds familiar? (Case in Burghausen)
Where is the cutoff after the obvious choices? Georgia Tech? UT Austin? University of Florida? etc. etc.