1988 Large installation in the city center of Cologne, between the Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Cathedral: "Neunter November Nacht" (Ninth November Night).
A four-meter-high, hundred-meter-long picture lane in which Helnwein recalls the "Reichskristallnacht", the beginning of the Holocaust, on 9 November 1938. He confronts the passersby with larger-than-life children's faces lined up in a seemingly endless row, as if for concentration camp selection. Just days into the exhibit, these portraits were vandalized by unknown persons, symbolically cutting the throats of the depicted children's faces.
Since then large scale installations in public spaces became an important part of his work ...

Set, costumes, and make-up for "Macbeth", a production of Hans Kresnik's choreographic theatre in the Stadttheater in Heidelberg.
The play is given an enthusiastic reception by audience and critics and is later awarded the Theatre Prize of Berlin ...

The poster for Peter Zadek's production of "Lulu" by Frank Wedekind in the Schauspielhaus theatre in Hamburg unleashes a storm of outrage.
The Deputy Mayor of Hamburg protests against the poster.
A "German-Language Citizens' Initiative for the Protection of Human Dignity" lays charges against Helnwein and Zadek for pornography. The discussion about this image spreads beyond the borders of the country. The Mayor of the City of Vienna, Helmut Zilk, is enthusiastic about the poster and gives Helnwein his hearty congratulations ...

Together with Vice-speaker of German parliament Antje Vollmer, Helnwein initiates a discussion with the Green Party in German parliament about the so called "degenerate art" in relation to the official art of the 3rd Reich .
This was the first cultural debate of the German Green Party ...

Helnwein visits Arno Breker, Hitler's favorite artist, in his studio in Düsseldorf, and photographs him holding a picture of Joseph Beuys.
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Beginning of the friendship with choreographer/director Johann Kresnik.
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Helnwein meets Michael Jackson in Germany.
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beginning of the friendship with Antje Vollmer, Vice-speaker of German parliament.
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Participates in the exhibition "Selection 4" Polaroid Art of the last 10 years in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and in the "photokina" in Cologne.

Helnwein works simultaneously on a series of large-format, monochromatic-blue, realistic oil and acrylic paintings, as well as on a series of monochrome abstract paintings..

1987 "Helnwein - Der Untermensch", self-portraits from 1970 - 1987, one-man show at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Strasbourg.
Roland Recht, Chief Curator of Museums in Strasbourg, stated: "The Viennese Helnwein is part of a tradition going back to the 18th century, to which Messerschmidt's grimacing sculptures also belong, on which one of Freud's pupils wrote a long treatise.
One sees, too, the common ground of these works with those of Arnulf Rainer or Nitsch, two other Viennese, who display their own bodies in the frame of reference of injury, pain, and death. One can also see this fascination for body language goes back to the expressive gesture in the work of Egon Schiele." ...

Installation and performance (Exhibition-Opera) "Der Untermensch" in the Kunsthalle Bremen.
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Helnwein meets Simon Wiesenthal in Vienna.
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At a Helnwein solo show at Freie Volksbühne Berlin, the paintings "Moral" and "Losing Time" are stolen from the exhibition. The works have never been recovered.
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One-man show in the Leopold Hoesch Museum in Düren and in the Villa Stuck in Munich.
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From 1987 to 1989 Helnwein works on a series of pastels.
"Death of Pinocchio" (Der Tod des Pinocchio), "God in Panic" (Gott in Panik), "Modern Sleep", "Burnt Angel" and others ...

May 15, Helnwein's son Wolfgang Amadeus is born.
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Aktion "Gott der Untermenschen".
Performance at camp Kopal of the Austrian army, February, 1987. Helnwein uses tanks and real ammunition ...

Parallel to the large-format, multi-part paintings and the photographic work, Helnwein now also turns to crayon drawings.
"Knabe und Neger" (Boy and Negro),
"Triumph der Wissenschaft" (Triumph of Science),
"Nachgeburt der Venus" (The Afterbirth of Venus),
"Das Lügengebet" (The Prayer of Lies).

One-man show in the Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz, and in the Freie Volksbühne theatre in Berlin.
Podium discussion "Violence, Sexuality, Antiquity" with Heiner Müller, Hans Neuenfels, Ernest Bornemann and Gottfried Helnwein.