A Muslim girl refused to shake the hand of the German president despite him visiting her school to praise students for integrating migrants so well. Footage has emerged of the visit of Joachim Gauck to the Theodor Heuss School in Offenbach at the end of last month.
It shows him arriving at the school in his official car with students waiting for him at the entrance and holding up welcome signs in a variety of languages including German and Arabic.
He had chosen to visit the school after it was singled out as being an example of how they successfully help migrant children learn the German language and culture.
Mr Gauck was then introduced to a line up of students and as he went down the line, he proceeded to shake hands with every one of them.
But when the president, who largely has a ceremonial role in Germany, reached the girl in a hijab in the line-up she quickly moved her hand away. She then placed it over her chest and bowed her head as Mr Gauck held out his hand for her.
But realising she was not going to greet him like the other students, the pair just exchanged smiles and he quickly moved on to the next student.
