Hamburger »Pimmelgate«: poster at the Rote Flora

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Overpainted poster on Rote Flora: »Soko Wall and Color«

Photo: Bodo Marks / picture alliance / dpa

In the "Pimmelgate" controversy, the Hamburg police put the brush down for the time being.

Before that, officials had come up twice to paint over a poster on the left-wing autonomous cultural center on which Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) was denigrated as a "dick".

That will no longer be done, as a spokeswoman said.

Strangers had a poster on Saturday with the inscription: "Andy, you are so 1 dick".

The police painted over the writing, which they classified as a "disturbance of public order".

But he reappeared - and the police came up again with black paint.

The slogan is now back on the poster in a slightly modified form.

The police are now stopping the painting, as a police spokeswoman announced.

It was decided that one »has to get out of this spiral«.

more on the subject

• After the Pimmeltweet: Andy, you are so 1 heroA column by Margarete Stokowski

• "Pimmelgate": Hamburg police move out to remove stickers

• »Pimmelgate«: Hamburg's Senator for the Interior insulted - house search

A decision by Grote also contributed to this: the Senator for the Interior had recently signaled to the public prosecutor that he was not willing to file a criminal complaint for every new insult of this kind.

Therefore, the police could do without a report in these cases, said the spokeswoman.

The guerrilla war over the poster is the latest part of a controversy that has been going on for months.

On May 30th, Grote criticized the celebrating crowds in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel on Twitter.

His message sparked numerous reactions.

Among other things, that of a user with the pseudonym »ZooStPauli« who wrote under Grotes Tweet: »You're so 1 dick.«

A Hamburg district court later approved the search of an accused's apartment.

The raid drew criticism, and even the police had doubts about the proportionality of the action.

At the beginning of October, strangers had distributed dozens of yellow stickers with the slogan "Andy, you are so 1 dick" around the Grotes apartment.

These were also removed by the police.

jpz / dpa