No, universities don't do this (though they can consider other factors, including their own admission exams, but this is rare). This is actually a problem, beca

No, universities don't do this (though they can consider other factors, including their own admission exams, but this is rare). This is actually a problem, because the matriculation exams are not the same in all German states, so students in some states have an unfair advantage in those cases where grades matter. Supposedly, in 2014/2015 the difficulty level of the matriculation exam will be standardized. The problem exists because traditionally, grades had not been much of a factor in admission (outside of a few restricted courses of study such as medicine). German universities (prior to Bologna) were used to running an open admission process and instead enforced selectiveness by failing those students who couldn't handle it early on.