I'm not an expert on the German research landscape, but I think it works a bit like that there, that the big shots work at Max Planck, Helmholtz,... institutes.

I'm not an expert on the German research landscape, but I think it works a bit like that there, that the big shots work at Max Planck, Helmholtz,... institutes. Would be funny if the US followed Germany there, since the current academic/research setup in the US was basically imported from Germany in the early 20th century.