Having grown up and studied in Germany and having lived and worked in the US too I know the differences quite a bit.
Yes, thinking is more narrow here in Germany and the "Fachidioten" that you are referring to are real. However, the depth and thoroughness of domain specific knowledge that you acquire with a German university degree are hard to beat, specifically in Engineering / STEM.
I would even go as far as to say that the top German Engineering Universities (Munich, Darmstadt, Aachen) are comparable to the top US universities in that area (Stanford, MIT, ...).
Now with regards to broadness of thinking and knowledge, it's true that the US values this much higher than Germany and the situation hasn't especially improved with the Bologna process in Germany.
However the big argument is that German universities are free and cost of living is low. Then why not study in Germany and get some of the US mentality later in your professional life by working in the US?
I'd argue that valuing choice of college/university too high is a mistake that many people make. Instead figure out first what you want, focus on getting your skills and how to discover new opportunities in life. No college university can really help you with this.
Can you maybe explain a little more how the "US values broadness of thinking and knowledge ... much higher than Germany"? Do you have some concrete examples in mind?
Based on experience in both the U.S. and Danish university systems (not the German one, but I believe it shares some similarities), the U.S. university education has a bigger focus on interdisciplinarity, where you focus on a major but also are required to take courses in other disciplines. The Danish system focuses specifically on the major.
If you major in CS in Denmark, you will take CS courses and only CS courses, to a fairy close approximation (due to staffing this might include 1 or 2 courses taught in the math department, but that's about as far outside the CS department as you're likely to get). Whereas if you major in CS in the U.S., it's frequently the case that there is a "common core" everyone has to take that includes other courses. For example, I did my CS degree in the U.S., and I had to take about 4 semesters of natural sciences (w/labs), 1 of engineering, 6 of mathematics, several humanities courses, etc., in addition to my CS courses. In Denmark a CS student is very unlikely to ever find themselves in the natural-sciences, humanities, or engineering departments (in Copenhagen they aren't even in physical proximity).
Not the same, CS majors in Germany have to choose one "Anwendungsfach" that consist of a subset of classes of natural-sciences, humanities or engineering majors. You have to choose one and stick with it. Also there is the "Nichttechisches Wahlpflichtfach" (probably the most german words I know) which can be a language class or mentoring first-semesters or something similar. So I feel like we get a lot of interdisciplinarity.
As you can see, about a fifth of the of the credits have to come from "support electives (soft skills)" and applied subject courses. I suppose this is quite representative for a German bachelor program.
You also have to keep in mind that the curricula at a US high school and a German Gymnasium are not equivalent. German students at the beginning of their university career on average have the equivalent of at least one year more of school education compared to the US students -- at least that used to be case.
Keep in mind that Germans go to highschool for longer. The Abitur covers a lot of the interdisciplinary ground that you have to take in an American undergraduate degree.
Yes, thinking is more narrow here in Germany and the "Fachidioten" that you are referring to are real. However, the depth and thoroughness of domain specific knowledge that you acquire with a German university degree are hard to beat, specifically in Engineering / STEM.
I would even go as far as to say that the top German Engineering Universities (Munich, Darmstadt, Aachen) are comparable to the top US universities in that area (Stanford, MIT, ...).
Now with regards to broadness of thinking and knowledge, it's true that the US values this much higher than Germany and the situation hasn't especially improved with the Bologna process in Germany. However the big argument is that German universities are free and cost of living is low. Then why not study in Germany and get some of the US mentality later in your professional life by working in the US?
I'd argue that valuing choice of college/university too high is a mistake that many people make. Instead figure out first what you want, focus on getting your skills and how to discover new opportunities in life. No college university can really help you with this.