1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Scrubbing the right

June 24, 2017

Irmela Mensah-Schramm is retired but working hard against right-wing extremism. She scrubs and scrapes off stickers bearing far-right slogans and paints over graffiti. And she takes part in sit-in protests, all of which puts her at odds with the law.

https://p.dw.com/p/2fIjF

Not many people enjoy scrubbing and cleaning, even if some can embrace its meditative aspects. But 71-year-old Irmela Mensah-Schramm sees it as a moral imperative - at least under special circumstances. She's set out to wipe public places clean of neo-nazi slogans, using razor blades to peel and scrape posters and stickers off street lights and painting over right-wing graffiti - even if it has brought her charges of damage to private property. For decades, this self-appointed political scrubber has been patrolling her neighborhood streets. Now she's taking it further, joining protesters in sit-ins to blockade right-wing marches. Often, she finds herself shoulder to shoulder with anti-fascist activists. But a show-down with law enforcement is inevitable. We tagged along with Irmela Mensah-Schramm on her cleaning routes and to a counter-demonstration against the so-called Identitarian Movement in Berlin. Scrubbing the Right - A Pensioner Cleans up. A Report by Sönje Storm.