"Germany's immigrants straddle cultural divide
By Jeffrey Fleishman
Originally published January 15, 2006
BERLIN // The Gummi Bear candy marked the cultural divide between Annette Spieler and the inquisitive little girl.
Spieler, principal at the elementary school in the Wrangel neighborhood here, offers candy as rewards for good grades. One Muslim student asked if Gummi Bears were made with gelatin, an ingredient often derived from pigs. Spieler discovered that they were.
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'The girl refused it,' Spieler said, in her office the other day. 'It was an indication of how the neighborhood has changed. When I came here in 1991, I didn't see as many head scarves as I see now, or as many immigrant women wrapped up all over. But now I see it everywhere. The Islamic religious life is strengthening, and it's coming into the schools.'"
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