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The creator of the Instagram channel “frankfurt trash” during one of his cleaning operations near Opernplatz. Because there have already been threats against him, he wants to remain anonymous. © Rainer Rüffer
A Frankfurt businessman uses a rag and scouring pad to clean the city. His Insta channel “frankfurt.trash” is very popular.
Frankfurt – The smartphone camera focuses on a power box: a gray cuboid smeared with awkward letters in black. “I’m going to do it again now,” says a voice off camera. “Spray can, graffiti on the old opera house. You take a bit of thinner, spray it on, then simply wipe it away with a cloth.” A hand in a black glove appears in front of the camera, sprinkles the offending paint with a liquid, then rubs it vigorously with a cloth and a scouring sponge and boom – the first letter has already disappeared.
Encourage Frankfurters to take action
Just one of the videos that have been regularly posted on the Instagram channel “frankfurt.trash” for over a year. He now has more than 16,000 followers. The Frankfurt businessman Jan Petrow is responsible for this (Name changed by the editors) . Every day he publishes several clips that he recorded in Frankfurt. Of road signs and lampposts covered in stickers. From dingy sidewalk corners where cigarette butts, scraps of paper, empty coffee cups and other garbage collect. From smeared power boxes, rusted junk bicycles and carelessly lying around footplates, such as those normally used to stabilize construction site fences or makeshift traffic signs.
With this, says Petrow, he wants to open his followers’ eyes to how dirty it is in many places in downtown Frankfurt. And not only that: he also tries to spur his viewers to take action. Plus, get started yourself with a cleaning cloth and scouring pad.
Frankfurter Saubermacher: The city cannot do it alone
In his clips, he does not skimp on criticism of the city of Frankfurt and Frankfurter Disposal and Service GmbH (FES), which did not adequately cope with these tasks. In personal conversation, however, he sounds much milder: The city can’t do it alone, he says. That’s why everyone has to take action: “I can show how it works so that everyone can help so that we have a more beautiful city.” And so he sets out regularly, equipped with cleaning utensils, nitro thinner, special acid-resistant gloves, a protective mask and a small knife , with which the particularly stubborn sticker scratches off poles, signs and power boxes – all documented via smartphone.
To the delight of many followers. “Finally someone who doesn’t talk but does,” comments one. “Every city needs something like you,” another. But he says he has also received threats like “head off” – probably from those whose stickers he removed. That’s why he doesn’t want to read his real name in the newspaper.
He says he has even had a run-in with the police because of his involvement. A few months ago he wanted to push aside a footplate at the All Saints Gate at night so that no one would trip over it, when suddenly a patrol stopped next to him and asked him what he was doing. The law enforcement officers responded to his explanation with a stern “don’t do that.” And when he asked the officials that they could eliminate the corpus delicti, all he heard was a terse “that’s not our job.” By the way, the footplate is still there, he says.
Only a few spoil Frankfurt
He is not deterred by such incidents or by the argument that his actions would hardly achieve anything – after all, cleaned surfaces would immediately be smeared and stuck together again. Not true, says Petrov. He has already repaired at least 30 power boxes in the city center alone. And most of them are still clean. “There are only a few who blight the city.”
He describes his activities just as confidently as he sometimes posts a video of his luxury sports car on his Instagram channel. He also mentions in passing that he has even bought an airplane, a Cessna. And that he hardly has any time for his cleaning operations. Why does he do it anyway? He’s attached to his hometown, he says: “I’m a native of Bornheim – I’ve never been away from Frankfurt for more than three weeks.” And he’s not above lending a hand himself to make the city finally cleaner again : “If everyone takes off a sticker, then there will soon be none left, because there are more of us.” (Brigitte Degelmann)
Frankfurt’s streets should be clean. We were traveling with a team of city cleaners in the All Heiligenviertel. The situation here is serious and disgusting.
