Universities are not free anymore in most states of Germany. And the selection after 4th grade is very much determined by the area you live in because you have to send your kids to the public school where you live.
Tuition was common for a while, but it isn't anymore. Lower Saxony is the only state where you still have to pay it and they're abolishing next year [1].
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studiengeb%C3%BChren_in_Deutsc...
You are right. I was not up to date on that.
There is no such thing as "free" so when discussing these sorts of issues it would be much more illuminating to describe the mechanism of funding, as it relates to one alternative to another.
So what's next?
[1] That said the common idea is in school and on television since around the 70s: The coolest guy is the one with the worst grades - every celebrity boosts how bad they were at school. And living on welfare has become a verb ("harzen") and is the live goal (perspective?) of many young people.