Polish cleaner dishes the dirt

14th January 2011

A Polish cleaner’s exposé on the dirty and hypocritical side of German domestic life has become an unlikely hit in her adopted country with copies flying off the shelves in bookshops.

‘Under German Beds: A Cleaning Lady Reveals All’ has rocketed up the non-fiction charts with stories that undermine the German stereotypes of cleanliness, order and Prussian adherence to regulations.

Written under the pen-name of Justyna Polanska, the account draws upon experiences gathered from the author’s 12 years of toiling in German homes.

Ms Polanska, like hundreds of thousands of Poles, headed to Germany to make money and expected to encounter a country where order dominated, but she wa ...