Both are true. More precisely on (a), the unis care about rankings, but the politicians who'd have the power to change the structure of research don't. Indeed

Both are true. More precisely on (a), the unis care about rankings, but the politicians who'd have the power to change the structure of research don't. Indeed for the majority of German politicans, the word "elite" is toxic, even and especially in the context of having a few world-class centres of excellence rather than 50 merely adequate universities.