Based on what I have heard from friends in London and Germany salaries are actually a lot better in Germany. Especially once you account for cost of living.
That said, US lifestyle/culture has its own set of advantages compared to Germany. German culture is surprisingly backwards for consumer software/internet stuff, for example.
(Weather is probably comparable to Berlin though)
That leaves at least 80% that earn considerably less and 50% that earn below the mean.
I actually edited out exactly the same argument that you wrote, because I (and you) have nothing to actually back it up.
Counterexample: if 60% of people earn very close above the average and 35% earn 30% below average and 5% earn (on average) double the total average, then the majority earns above average even tho the right hand-tail gets high. This is just one possible scenario that is not even completely unrealistic.
Also remember that most crazy incomes are not salaries.
If you are looking at more "modern" tech companies in Berlin or well-funded startups it's definitely possible. The last 3 job offers I had were in the 90-100k range, for a "senior" position (~6 years of experience) in Berlin.
Maybe Zalando offers more but few would want to work there.
On top of that, a lot of the bigger SV startups have satellite offices in Berlin.
Yep, personally know them. But they're in Köln last I remember.
Many of the companies you mentioned (not gonna named not to get sued) have reportedly terrible working culture and/or awful recruitment process (applied to most of them). So maybe the money is compensating.
Might be true for some of them, but for the ones on the list where I know people that work there, it sounded pretty good. In the end good working culture is one of many axis to optimize on.