Helnwein meets Alice Schwarzer, the leading contemporary German feminist, while working on his cycle "48 portraits", which marks the beginning of their friendship .
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Cologne art Collector and patron Prof. Fritz Gruber and his wife Renate invite Helnwein to join their circle of friends (artists, writers, photographers, curators and intellectuals) who meet on a regular basis at his salons in his villa in Cologne.
Later some of the friends, amongst them Brian Eno, Alice Schwarzer and Alfred Biolek, rent a river-boat, originally built for King Faruk of Egypt and embarke on several journeys on the Nile. Hence the group called itself "The Nile-Society" (Nil-Gesellschaft) ...

Helnwein meets David Bowie in Los Angeles.
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A group of German Lutheran pastors start a character assassination campaign against Helnwein, that turns into a witch-hunt over several years.
The campaign is joined by conservative media and politicians of the conservative Christian party (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands), claiming, amongst other absurdities, that the artist is a secret cult-leader, trying to lure people in his studio to brain-wash them in order to turn them into slaves and that his paintings contain hidden, subliminal, hypnotic messages.
Helnwein's studio is broken in to and friends and collectors get threatening anonymous letters, demanding to disassociate from the artist or bear severe consequences. Gallery owners and museum directors are put under heavy pressure to cancel Helnwein exhibitions and to exclude Helnwein's work from their institutions.
Helnwein sues against the libelous assertions and eventually wins all court-cases. In the end Helnwein appeals to the "Federal Constitutional (Supreme) Court" in Karlsruhe, the highest level of jurisdiction in Germany.
On Nov 10, 1998, all seven judges of the Supreme Court declare unanimously that Helnwein's constitutional rights have been violated and annul a preceding judicial error by a lower court, that rejected Helnwein's appeal ...

Helnwein meets John Cale in Brussels.

Helnwein visits Charles Bukowski in Los Angeles.
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Helnwein works on a series of dark, monochrome paintings.
He applies more and more layers of oil varnish to his realistic blue monochrome pictures till the subjects are almost indiscernible.

1990 One-man show in the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne. Installation "Neunter November Nacht".

Set and costumes for "Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats, dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade".
(The Persecution and Murder of Jean Paul Marat, Performed by the Drama Group of the Hospice at Charenton under the Direction of Monsieur de Sade) by Peter Weiss, directed by Hans Kresnik at the Staatstheater in Stuttgart.

Photo session with Keith Richards at the Berlin Wall.
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Collaboration with Marlene Dietrich on the book "Some Facts about Myself", for the occasion of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her essay that gave the book it's title was the last text that Marlene Dietrich wrote in her life.
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Helnwein meets Miles Davis and writes an essay for Miles' first exhibition of his paintings at Museum Morsbroich in Germany.
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Helnwein meets Leni Riefenstahl in Munich.
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One-man show - Museum St. Ingbert, St. Ingbert, and installation „Neunter November Nacht“.

One-man show - Kunstverein Ludwigsburg.

One-man show - Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Einzelausstellung.

Helnwein meets former German Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt, who sits for a porttrait foto session.

1989 One-man show at Folkwang Museum in Essen.
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Helnwein meets William S. Burroughs in Lawrence, Kansas.
Burroughs says about Helnwein: "It is the function of the artist to evoke the experience of surprised recognition: to show the viewer what he knows but does not know that he knows.
Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition" ...

Helnwein meets Elia Kazan in New York.