1989 One-man show at Folkwang Museum in Essen.
...

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.

Helnwein meets Keith Haring in Düsseldorf.
Keith draws on Ali Helnwein's hand ...

Helnwein meets with Lech Walensa, President of the Republic of Poland, in Germany, who sits for a portrait session.

Helnwein meets Norman Mailer in Provincetown.
...

Torino Fotografia 1989, Biennale Internationale.
Gottfried Helnwein, David Hockney, Clegg and Guttmann ...

Stage design and costumes for "Oedipus" by Sophocles at Hans Kresnik's Choreographic Theatre in Heidelberg.

Work on the set and costumes for "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff at the Bayerische Staatsoper opera house (opening of the 1990 Munich Festival).
When Wolfgang Sawallisch, the head of the Staatsoper, sees the radical costume design, he is so shocked that he immediately calls a press conference and announces the sacking of Gottfried Helnwein and director Hans Kresnik ...

Cooperation with German playwright Heiner Müller and choreographer Hans Kresnik on a play about Antonin Artaud.
Heiner Müller says about Helnwein: "How does a friendly person like Helnwein stand making his - excellent - painting into a mirror of the terrors of this century? Or is it that he can't stand not doing it?" ...

Helnwein's photographic work from 1970 to 1989 is published by Dai Nipon in Japan. Text by Toshiharu Ito.
...

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.
...

Beginning of the friendship with choreographer/director Johann Kresnik.
...

Helnwein meets Michael Jackson in Germany.
...

beginning of the friendship with Antje Vollmer, Vice-speaker of German parliament.
...

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.