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