Not trying to argue with you, but I am really surprised to hear that. The most “applied” research you can do in biology is biomedical, engineering, or boots-on-the-ground ecology. Germany is great at all of those, and their reputation for engineering is world-renowned, arguably above that of the US. The US might have the best reputation for medical research, but Germany is certainly no slouch.
What type of applied biological research are you aiming for? It sounds like you have some pretty specific ideas of what you’d like to do. Perhaps targeting individual laboratories or departments would be a good idea for you. You are more likely to find an excellent research fit with that approach than just targeting T10 or other “top” schools. There is not a strong correlation of “top ranked schools” with what would be considered the top biology research laboratories. The labs with the best reputations in a given field will be distributed in a wide variety of institutions. I don’t see why a T10 school in the US would have particularly great “applied” bio research over any other good US or German school.