German culture in the work place is hierarchical and extremely "old school" in my experience. Yes I know you hear about all the "cool" startups in Berlin but they are the exception and need to conform at some point if they want to do business with larger organizations that actually have money.
There is a wealth of talent here but this talent simply does not fit the "desired" culture. I would go as far as saying that hacker culture is the complete opposite of what the average German company wants to deal with.
You are in for a shock when you start dealing with the government departments here. They make the private companies look like bastions of liberalism. I could write a book about my experiences dealing with different government departments and agencies.
If Germany wants to attract talent (or start making use of home grown talent) they need to start accepting that these people do not want to fit the mould.
I would also say that a lot of industry giants have all-bullshitting-no-substance offers with a great sales department behind it. Just look at watson.
I think germany could improve to be a much better place to start a company. And it should.
You cannot hedge your city’s job security on startups of whom the vast majority can’t survive without venture capital. It is as if people in tech have forgotten about the 2000 crash.
For a city like Berlin there will be a whole load of hurt when funding dries up. It simply is not in the city’s best interest, in my opinion, to put all its hope in having startups create all their jobs.