An erasing and cleaning apparatus for cylinders an erasing and cleaning apparatus for cylindrical surfaces in a printing press includes a positioning unit with side walls and a cleaning cloth transport device arranged in said positioning unit and having a clean cloth roll, a wash roll, and a dirty cloth roll. An intermittently operated pneumatic or hydraulic linear drive having a stroke movement is connected to said cleaning cloth transport device for advancing a cleaning cloth off of the clean cloth roll, over the wash roll, and onto the dirty cloth roll. At least one of the sidewalls includes bearing elements for the clean cloth roll, the wash roll, and the dirty cloth roll. A gearwheel is connected to one of the bearing elements by one of a freewheeling and overrunning clutch for converting the stroke movement of the drive into a rotary movement. The apparatus also includes a cam control system for controlling a stroke limitation in response to a winding radii of the cleaning cloth on the dirty cloth roll and an integrated braking device generating a braking force for counteracting a pulling direction of said intermittently operated drive, the braking force also being adjustable in response to the winding radii of the cleaning cloth on the dirty cloth roll.