| # | University | City | World rank | In-country | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Technical University of Munich | Munich | #22 (2026) | #1 | 19,402,426 |
| 2 | Technische Universität München | #22 (2026) | #1 | 19,402,426 | |
| 3 | Ludwig Maximilians University | Munich | #54 (2026) | #3 | 29,827,940 |
| 4 | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich | #54 (2026) | #3 | 29,827,940 | |
| 5 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | #54 (2026) | #3 | 29,827,940 | |
| 6 | Heidelberg University | Heidelberg | #80 (2026) | #5 | 44,425,915 |
| 7 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | #80 (2026) | #5 | 44,425,915 | |
| 8 | Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg | #80 (2026) | #6 | 44,425,915 | |
| 9 | Freie Universität Berlin | #88 (2026) | #8 | 9,301,966 | |
| 10 | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | Karlsruhe | #98 (2026) | #9 | 11,720,699 |
| 11 | Karlsruher Institut für Technologie | #98 (2026) | #9 | 11,720,699 | |
| 12 | RWTH Aachen University | #105 (2026) | #10 | 18,655,922 | |
| 13 | Humboldt University of Berlin | #130 (2026) | #12 | 10,722,617 | |
| 14 | University Of Hamburg | Hamburg | #193 (2026) | #14 | 21,131,387 |
| 15 | Universität Hamburg | #193 (2026) | #14 | 21,131,387 | |
| 16 | Albert-Ludwigs-University | Freiburg | #201 (2026) | #15 | 17,505,833 |
| 17 | Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn | #207 (2026) | #16 | 18,212,717 | |
| 18 | Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen | #215 (2026) | #17 | 13,385,017 | |
| 19 | Technische Universität Dresden | #218 (2026) | #18 | 11,205,866 | |
| 20 | Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg | #232 (2026) | #19 | 12,886,076 | |
| 21 | Georg August Universitat | Gottingen | #243 (2026) | #20 | 14,202,367 |
| 22 | Technische Universität Darmstadt | #253 (2026) | #21 | 4,109,934 | |
| 23 | Universität Köln | #272 (2026) | #22 | 9,808,472 | |
| 24 | Universität Stuttgart | #310 (2026) | #23 | 5,437,887 | |
| 25 | Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster | #350 (2026) | #24 | 9,492,318 | |
| 26 | Ruhr-Universität Bochum | #395 (2026) | #25 | 7,775,681 | |
| 27 | Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg | #416 (2026) | #26 | 10,672,087 | |
| 28 | Universität Mannheim | #416 (2026) | #27 | 1,523,047 | |
| 29 | Universität Hannover | #433 (2026) | #28 | 6,351,822 | |
| 30 | Universität Konstanz | #440 (2026) | #29 | 3,365,302 | |
| 31 | Universität Bayreuth | #448 (2026) | #30 | 3,166,181 | |
| 32 | Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz | #452 (2026) | #31 | 16,615,407 | |
| 33 | Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg | #477 (2023) | #32 | 3,694,169 | |
| 34 | Universität Potsdam | #477 (2026) | #33 | 3,016,025 | |
| 35 | Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg | #487 (2026) | #34 | 796,580 | |
| 36 | Justus Liebig Universität Gießen | #496 (2026) | #35 | 6,392,062 | |
| 37 | Friedrich-Schiller-University | Jena | #526 (2025) | #36 | 5,692,049 |
| 38 | Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena | #526 (2025) | #36 | 5,692,049 | |
| 39 | Universität Bremen | #592 (2025) | #37 | 3,653,580 | |
| 40 | Universität des Saarlandes | #601 (2025) | #38 | 4,961,465 | |
| 41 | Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main | not ranked | #40 | 15,161,997 | |
| 42 | Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf | not ranked | #41 | 10,819,956 | |
| 43 | Medizinische Hochschule Hannover | not ranked | #42 | 8,214,592 | |
| 44 | Universität Ulm | not ranked | #44 | 6,941,062 | |
| 45 | Universität Leipzig | not ranked | #46 | 6,539,651 | |
| 46 | Universität Regensburg | not ranked | #47 | 5,589,840 | |
| 47 | Technische Universität Dortmund | not ranked | #50 | 4,928,434 | |
| 48 | Universität Rostock | not ranked | #53 | 3,260,839 | |
| 49 | Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig | not ranked | #54 | 2,857,373 | |
| 50 | Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald | not ranked | #57 | 2,311,545 |
What the two columns mean
In-country is the position the ranking record gives the university among those in its own country, and it is often the more useful number: a university ranked 480th in the world may still be third at home. It is carried over as published, so it does not always follow the order of the other two columns. World rank is the university's QS World University Rankings position. Citations are the number of times work published by the university has been cited, as recorded in OpenAlex; it is the measure used to order universities that QS does not rank at all.
The two do not always agree. A large research university can out-cite a smaller one that sits above it in QS, because QS weighs reputation surveys and staff ratios as well as research.