The group was the militant branch of a left-wing political organisation called "Revolutionärer Kampf" (Revolutionary Fight).
[1][2] The term Putzgruppe became popular in Germany in 2000, when the trial against Hans-Joachim Klein, a former member of the group, begun.
[3] The groups usual area of operation was the violent defense of occupied buildings against eviction by the police.
Hans-Joachim Klein was part of the group and said, he and other comrades had exercised confrontations with the police in role plays in the Frankfurt city forest.
Other members were Johnny Klinke, Matthias Beltz, Ralf Scheffler, Raoul Kopania, Georg Clemens Dick and Tom Koenigs.