Helnwein & Scientology, Lies &
Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 11
Helnwein, Reichelt and Scientology
Vienna, in January 1987 -
My last day in wintry, snowy Vienna. I was standing in District 1, in the
middle of the heart of the city, only a stone's throw from St. Stephan's
Cathedral, the city's landmark, in front of the large show windows of the
Wuerthle Gallery. On the other side of the street, diagonally across in the
mezzanine of 8 Singer Str. was where Scientology began in 1974 - Gottfried
Helnwein's career.
In 1987, the Wuerthle Gallery was Austria's most influential temple of
contemporary art, under the business management of the attractive Johanna
Dichand, the daughter of newspaper czar, chief of the "Kronen"
newspaper and media mogul Hans Dichand, whose generous financial support she
enjoyed.
Hans Dichand is an influential man, perhaps even Austria's most influential,
and he is a great admirer of the painter Gottfried Helnwein and one of his few
friends in Austria's self-willed art scene. Dichand has been promoting him by
more than just purchasing his pictures since the beginning of the 1970s, when
Helnwein still lived in Vienna, was neither rich nor famous and was causing one
scandal after another with his spectacular art campaigns.
Dichand told of his relationship to Helnwein in an interview in Austrian "Basta"
magazine in November 1992: "I value him highly because he is no epigone.
For each of the art greats, there are countless followers. But Helnwein has
forged a new, unique style. The blue phase which he is now painting moves me
greatly. The giant portrait which he has done of me contains my favorite
colors. Blue is the most meaningful color in art ... My acquaintance with
Helnwein goes back 20 years (1972), back to an exhibition in the press
building. At the time he was in the mutilated children phase, and we soon took
the pictures down because the workers were against that sort of thing. The
exhibition had been meant for them, so it was their own decision. Later he
became an exquisite illustrator in the 'Kronen' newspaper. My favorite work was
a paper in the beginning of the school year: a child wearing a face of loathing
was sitting down to his first assignment and gnawing on his pencil. I acquired
the picture, as well as the James Dean, which shows magnificently that nowhere
can one be lonelier than in a big city. I love Helnwein's new, peaceful
pictures more than the earlier, aggressive ones.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 12
I didn't like those as well as I would have understood them, either: it
probably had to do with him showing what quality life can have for children."
In December 1984, 36-year-old Gottfried Helnwein "fled" Vienna
with his wife, Renate, 30 years old at the time, and their three children: a
son, Cyril, 7 years old; a daughter, Mercedes, 4 years, and baby son Ali, 2
years. Living in Vienna for fourteen years as an artist was more than enough
for him. Although he had very quickly become famous far outside the Vienna
city limits, he remained an outsider in the city of his birth, shunned by
society for many years mainly because of his early water colors from 1969 to
1975, some of which gruesomely portrayed disfigured and abused children and
adolescents. After nearly a year's stay in the USA, the more recent phenomenal
success, since about 1978, of his hyperreal portraits of Peter Alexander, Nikki
Lauda, James Dean, J.F. Kennedy and many other celebrities brought him not only
the long, sought-after breakthrough and the bitterly needed commercial wealth,
but also many new enemies, this time primarily from his own Austrian art scene,
especially in Vienna. One of his few friends from former times, classmate from
the academy and fanatic "Beach Boys" fan, Manfred Deix, like Helnwein,
also rapidly advanced to become a national superstar with his own cult status
with his covers for news magazine "Profil."
For reasons of keeping his real intentions a secret, Helnwein did not give a
detailed account of his reason for his "broken" connection to his home
city of Vienna until 1992, in the Austrian Magazine, "Basta":
"Helnwein: I never had a feeling of being at home. At most, it was a
sort of vacuum which held me here, although I had wanted to leave for a long
time, but when I would come back, I noticed qualities in the city which one can
value only from a distance. The freaks here. Absurd types, grumblers. After
the private showing (in the Wuerthle Gallery on the occasion of the initial
second Helnwein exhibition in Vienna after his move to German Burgbrohl seven
years prior) I was out with Deix until five in the morning. Unbelievable, what
kind of people you meet there! Completely different from Germany or America,
where everything is cordoned off and predictable. Over there is much better for
working. But the scenario here is one of a kind ... Vienna activism is an art
form which nowhere else comes close to.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 13
Probably in this city, one has no other alternative but to cut himself with razor
blades ... or my self-mutilations. In this city something builds up in you that
you have to get away from. That is also the reason why I went away. In these
36 years, I had accumulated so much Vienna in myself, that I need a lifetime to
dismantle it. Vienna is more intense than someplace else - but you have to get
away because it uses you ... Vienna is dominated by cliques which have divided
up the districts and which control the market like pimps. They do that very
well, and anyone who wants can do it with them. The most powerful clique is
that of Rainer, Pichler, Nitsch and Attersee. You have to work hard to be a
member by laughing, wining and dining together in coffee houses. It's just
that that is not my style. Never has been. Neither am I jealous. Besides
that, my market is in foreign countries."
"Basta": A clique that is completely out of style is the fantasy
realists. Helnwein continued, "I already know anybody who wants to be
modern and be with it and get exposure has to hang out with Fuchs. Or
Hundertwasser: critics, architects, visitors to the exhibitions with their
designer jeans loathe him, but the public loves him and thinks he's wild. I,
too, like to look at his giant scenes of burning garbage and enjoy myself. I am
aware of the price lists which always the same ones insist on: Rainer, Pickler,
Nitsch and on down to Attersee. But all the way at the top is Hundertwasser,
which bothers everybody, because they don't want him there. But he is strong as
Hrdlicka, who elbowed his way to the top."
"Basta" again: Austrian critics have been severely criticizing
you.
Helnwein: "Not in general. But if you mean the "press," they
always have representatives of this esoteric priest art for a small elite.
Tabor, the critic, was foaming at the mouth at my Albertina museum exhibition a
couple of years ago (1985), and I was happy about that because I had the
impression that he was not feeling too well after looking at my work. In
reality these elitists are almost always a fraud. They work things out among
themselves! One sends a few artists from one museum to the other - the museum
directors are all good friends, anyway - and the market value goes up with each
museum. The important thing is that it is only a few. In Austria, for example,
they are Rainer, Pichler, Nitsch and Attersee. The idea of the art market is to
create an artificial demand through a shortage.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 14
There are many good artists, but the clique reduces them to just a few ...
I get my concept of artistic quality a different way. I also respect
people who do not go crazy over Rainer and his twelve-tone music, but like
Hundertwasser and Peter Alexander. And, in case of doubt, I prefer kitsch,
banality and imbecility, which are in a position to release emotion, to glass
door aesthetics."
June 1987 - For the first time, the same magazine, "Basta, two years
after Helnwein's self-imposed exile, was the first Austrian magazine to
generally honor the wrongly designated "lost" son Helnwein of the city
of Vienna with a detailed seven page article, without forgetting to mention the
artist's extraordinary love of Scientology. The story began with an
introductory hymn of praise to its favorite species, Manfred Deix - like
Helnwein, an idol in Austria...
Deix: "Helnwein is a marvel. The most sensitive, funniest, most
creative person I know. My best friend, and that since 1965. We got to know
each other in graphics, and our common fate brought us together: him from the
city, me from the rural land of small villages, both dressed horribly and
ruthlessly dragged to the barber's by our parents, outsiders with a tinge of the
pre-hippy era. Then there was our common admiration for Mickey Mouse and the
magnificent Disney cartoonist, Carl Barks. It wasn't a whole week before we had
our own personal crash pad, and had invested our aggressive potential in an
imposing diatribe. He was the doer, because he is a hero. He dared to do what
none other did: for example he shat a gigantic pile in front of the teacher's
room, imagine, such a small person! ... And he is proud, introverted,
selective. That caused those he did not distinguish with his presence to accuse
him of arrogance." "Basta" again: "... An ironic person and
his realm: Helnwein, 39, at Burgbrohl, the landmark of the village by the same
name, between Coblenz and Cologne, there, in the most beautiful place on the
Rhein. Year "2" after the emigration from Austria... Renate the
spouse, four children, an assistant, a secretary, three cats, a dog, some
chickens. Scientology teachings as structure and instrument of self-experience.
For two years he has not painted a magazine cover, Donald Duck, James Dean,
Mick Jagger are a closed section of the past...
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 15
Helnwein: "Only very, very few artists at all manage their own
trademark. I am one of those, and if you listen to what people are saying
around the world, Rainer, Nitsch, Hundertwasser and I are the most well known
Austsrian artists. And then someone like me comes along and ruins things for
the critics because he is always taking it to the limits, because he painted
Peter Alexander as the cover for "Krone" and has transgressed all the
laws of the elite market - and simply threw his trademarks away." ...The "business"
with his excessive drive which he has been accused of has receded. "I was
never well-to-do and now less than ever before. My giant format is really only
attractive for museums. I'm shuffling my debts around like a field officer but
I don't worry about it because I've produced four children and hope for their
support in return."
That's no surprise, because by the summer of 1987, the Helnwein couple had "donated"
a conservatively estimated DM 600,000 to varioius Scientology organizations for
their high titles of "operating thetans" and more.
"Basta" continued: "If Helnwein has gradually been assuming a
cultic position in the German nobility scene, here at home judgment has been
passed on him for the worse. Only Hans Dichand, Helnwein fan from the very
beginning, remains true to him and displays his new works in the Wuerthle
Gallery.
August 1996 -Hans Dichand's Wuerthle Gallery in the middle of Vienna has now
been closed for over six months. Contemporary art, especially in Germany and
Austria, is in the middle of its worst crisis since the end of the Second World
War. Hard times for artists and galleries. Those well-known among them
continue to survive from the golden 1980s; all the rest are just trying to eke
out a living. Gottfried Helnwein, despite alleged world fame and money, found
himself on the losing side since the fateful summer of 1996 for more reasons
than one.
The German media, both television and press, were condemning him with
malicious glee, some of which was of his own making, after pronouncement of the
now legally valid (!) Frankfurt "Helnwein is a Scientologist" superior
state court judgment of 20 June 1996, with the exception of the venerable "Sueddeutsche
Zeitung" newspaper in which Helnwein continues to be presented as a poor,
innocent victim of the "evil" German Scientology hysteria, one can
only imagine why.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 16
Helnwein and
Reichelt in Krems, Austria, May 1991
(Photo Archive Reichelt - AR - )
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 17
One can read this case study in pretentiousness which, by journalistic
standards, is unfortunately insufficiently researched and, in many passages,
simply false, in the article of August 8, 1996 by the renowned "leading
editor" of the newspaper, Herbert Riehl-Heyse, with the title "The
Painter and his Hydra."
Cruising the Nile together and the "1,001 Nights " Festival at
Burgbrohl
Biolek and Helnwein, Two Friends - 1995
A short time thereafter the same article was reprinted unabridged on
September 5, 1995 in "Facts," the largest Swiss news magazine
under the title "I shit on Scientology." The isolated "pro-Helnwein"
speakers are primarily his good friends and collectors of his art: ARD talk show
host Alfred Biolek, and also the Green Party politician and Parliamentary Vice
President (!) Antje Vollmer. Both have had very private, personal contact with
the artist and his family since the early 1990s. Apparently both, however, have
lost the personal impartiality and oversight needed in this "Helnwein case"
since their subjective views have excluded some possibilities. It seems to me
that this kind of behavior is extremely objectionable, especially in the case of
a leading German politician like Mrs. Vollmer. Whether in various podium
discussions or even in television programs, such as was broadcast October 8,
1996 by WDR's favorite ARD talk show "Boulevard Bio," with Alfred
Biolek (!) as emcee and guests including Gottfried Helnwein (!) - with the
theme: "The unjustly persecuted artist (Helnwein)" - in which the
unavoidable "Inge Meysel of the Greens" and Antje Vollmer, this time
flanked by the noticeably naive support of one Alfred Biolek, who was especially
wide-eyed and perhaps even cued in advance (?) in pro-Helnwein statements about
"campaigns" and sacrificial lambs, passed Helnwein off as a victim.
Simply incomprehensible when one recalls that the week before many people who
were personally aware of Helnwein's membership in Scientology had appeared in a
live broadcast, including Germany's best known Scientology critic and author,
Renate Hartwig, at WDR in Cologne, as well as at the Biolek editing office in
his "Pro Inc." production company, and ardently emphasized Helnwein's
activities. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, Helnwein's friend, Alfred
Biolek, shut both his eyes and carried through with his talk show to serve
Helnwein without consideration of the truth, against his better judgment and in
front of an audience of millions of people.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 18
Perhaps one of the reasons for the obvious goodwill treatment of his friend
Helnwein by Dr. Biolek was that his "Pro Inc." TV company organized a
one-week Nile cruise through Egypt from February 23 to March 2, 1995 in which
Helnwein's wife, Renate, and 20 other close friends and members of "Pro
Inc." staff took part. As a "return measure," Gottfried Helnwein
accommodated his bosom buddy Biolek and many of Biolek's friends in his castle
in Burgbrohl for a magnificent "1,001 Nights" festival which Helnwein
had artistically arranged with regard to the contents as a small Thank You for
Dr. Biolek. That occurred on September 24, 1995 on Helnwein's castle estate.
The expenses for that ran far in excess of 10,000 DM.
A scandal without consequences? It does, in fact, appear that such a fraud
to the paying television audience no longer results in consequences. In spite
of all the efforts made by his "blind" friend, Helnwein benefitted not
at all, or just for a very short length of time. An observant TV correspondent
of the ARD (!) news magazine "Report" from the Bavarian Broadcasting
(BR) company got the scoop on exposing this television fraud with its actual
background a short two weeks later on October 21, 1996.
ARD Report in BR - magazine "Report" - Two TV Reports on the
Helnwein Scandal on 21 Oct 1996 and 3 Feb 1997
21 Oct 1996 - Fool's freedom for Scientologists: the Helnwein case and the
media:
"After the Jews in the Third Reich, the Germans have sought out a new
object in satisfying their suppressive tendencies - the Scientologists."
This is the core of the scandalous statement of a gigantic advertisement
campaign which the notorious Scientology sect has initiated in the USA. The
widespread slander of the German people is part of a propaganda strategy with
which Scientology wants to break the resistance in Germany. Part of this
strategy is the public relations presentation of alleged victims of German
Scientology hysteria.
The poster child for this effort is the painter, Gottfried Helnwein, who was
recently bewailed by the Sueddeutche Zeitung newspaper as a victim of critics
turned wild,
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 19
may now speak unopposed, even on TV talk shows, about alleged German
Scientology hatred. Stefan Meining on Helnwein, the false victim:
Tuesday a week ago (8 Oct 1996, "Boulevard Bio"). Germany's
renowned talk show host, Alfred Biolek, and an hour of small talk. Biolek: "Good
evening, ladies and gentlemen. Our topic this evening is called "Alienated
and Despised!"
And with him art painter and Scientologist, as verified by the court,
Gottfried Helnwein. On Bio he contested being a member of the Scientology
organization, instead of that Helnwein impersonated a persecuted artist.
Helnwein: "That is quite simple, it has to do with completely shutting
somebody out of society. Goldhagen created a very good word for it: "socially
dead." There is a circumstance in which it should be used. It means that
someone is socially dead."
Reality appeared quite differently: Scientology had been using Helnwein to
advertise for years. One Scientology brochure was even illustrated with
Helnwein pictures. Therefore critics described Helnwein as a Scientologist.
Helnwein took them to court, even though an American Scientology magazine had
interviewed him as a member of the Scientology clergy. Did the American
Scientology center interfere with the proceedings? Did they take Mr. Helnwein's
side?
Wolfgang Frank, judge and press spokesman at Frankfurt superior state court:
"That is not manifest, in any case Mr. Helnwein did not deny that the
interview in question, which was published in America, took place. In that
interview, he was described as an "auditor," and thereby a clergyman.
He never contradicted that." Because of that the Frankfurt superior state
court determined in a judgment which could not be appealed:
Quote: The complainant is a Scientologist. In any case he confesses to this
organization. This is concluded from numerous facts.
New evidence is constantly appearing. It proves Helnwein's membership in
Scientology. Just one example - in his feudal house Helnwein issued a
declaration of love for Scientology. And that was for a Scientology
advertisement video.
Helnwein: "Scientology is simply another step, a new monstrous
discovery. That is one dimension of it. It exceeds everything which man had
previously thought possible. And that, naturally, is regarded by the people in
power, for the moment, as dangerous. I understand that, too."
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 20 & 21
Renate Helnwein wrote "scientologese"
Definition
from: Hubbard Scientology-English Dictionary
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 31
On September 24, 1987 Gottfried Helnwein signed me up with a detailed
consultant, agent and employment contract for a duration of three years, valid
until September 30, 1990.
On October 26, 1990 this contract with me, at the express wish of Helnwein,
was extended another three years up until October 31, 1993.
Among other things Helnwein and I agreed that I would help with:
"a. Legal and tax issues
b. Organization of exhibitions and
c.
Other special assignments ...".
In the course of the 7 years between March 1987 and April 1994 a very
intense cooperation and friendship developed between the Helnwein family and me.
It was certainly one of the closest relationships which the two had with a
German "non-Scientologist" during these years.
Countless visits to their castle, trips and visits together document this
intensive partnership and business connection. Besides our business cooperation
we also had a common private passion - the Disney cartoonist Carl Barks and his
duck stories.
We discussed exciting projects together on a small scale as if they were of
great scope. The main obstacle, as was so often the case, was the costs of
implementation, the lack of sponsors, and refusals from community or state
cultural agencies on personal grounds.
The Helnwein Group
Helnwein first thought of founding his own Scientology-structured "Helnwein
Foundation" in April 1988. At the time Helnwein wanted primarily to
construct a functioning "tax savings model." In an internal proposal
paper, he divided the foundation into six departments. Helnwein planned solely
on having active Scientologists as consultants. Besides Gottfried Helnwein and
his wife, Renate, were his Austrian business partner and matching IAS / OSA
donor Toni Morell from Vienna, Peter Gerhards and the Munich attorney, Guenther
von Jan. Jan led an attorney's office on fashionable Prinzregentenplatz and
worked together with people including Helnwein's best top Scientologist friends
Kurt Fliegerbauer, Klaus Kempe, Axel Fehling and Mario Herold. Besides that,
the attorney's office is connected with the Scientology secret service, the "Office
of Special Affairs" (OSA).
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 32
CELEBRITY CENTER
15 October 1991
Dear Peter,
I really enjoyed seeing you in Frankfurt. I once spoke briefly about your
volume.
I will be with Liza Minelli on Tuesday. Perhaps I will see you there. I
would enjoy that in any case.
until then, cordially yours,
Adelheid Rech-Gesche on Scientology recruitment tour
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 33
CELEBRITY CENTER
27 January 1992
Dear Mr. Reichelt,
so far our seeing each other again has not worked out, but certainly this
year it will be possible. Are you still working with "Zeil um Zehn"?
When I am in Frankfurt next time I will try to cut my Friday short in order
to stop by and look in and say a short "hello."
I would enjoy seeing you again.
Cordially yours,
Scientology did not relax, but was still not successful
Reichelt
resisted the "temptations"
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 34
As does Helnwein, attorney von Jan functions openly as a relay point in the
Scientology world. However, the "foundation" never became officially
active, i.e., legally incorporated. As always, for whatever reason, it never
got past the proposal stages. Nevertheless in summer 1994 in Swiss Lausanne,
inside the museum structure of "Musee d'Elyssee," a "Gottfried
Helnwein" foundation was established. Even today a mystery reigns
concerning the structure and the objectives of the foundation, even on the part
of the museum management.
In April 1989, Helnwein personally drew up the only actually effective
organizational chart in use, as of my departure in March 1994. Under
the heading "The Helnwein Group manages the following activities" he
listed the six following categories with the ones who were currently in charge
of them.
Group 1 - Gottfried Helnwein
a. Painting
b. Lithos
Group 2 - Gottfried Helnwein Inc. Vienna /
Business manager Toni Morell
a. Acquisition of Rights
b. Production and Distribution of Posters worldwide
Group 3 - Gottfried Helnwein Productions / Gottfried Helnwein
a. Production of Films
b. Videos
c. Books
Group 4 - Gottfried Helnwein Media / Peter Reichelt
Acquisition and Assessment of Media contacts
Group 5 - Gottfried Helnwein Exhibitions / Peter Reichelt +
Thomas Buchsteiner
Organize and put on 25 exhibitions worldwide or
at a fixed location
Group 6 - Gottfried Helnwein Communications / Klaus Kiefer
Document and Evaluate Customer Names
The Idols Project
Helnwein called his most extensive general culture project to date "The
100 Idols of the 20th Century." Planned to last 10 years, the Helnwein
multimedia art project was to hold a wandering exhibition in all the renowned
museums of this planet.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 35
Hello Peter,
Call me up as soon as possible about David Bowie & Liza Minelli.
[Scientology "ARC" triangle]
Renate
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 36
His "Idols Exhibition" was supposed to delight museum visitors
around the world like a traveling Disneyland, not with an amusement park Ferris
wheel and roller coaster, but with an artistic utilization and exploitation of
what were, in his opinion, the world's 100 most famous idols. Helnwein wanted
to make the actual implementation dependent upon securing financing for the
project. This was ahead of its time. Helnwein's GEMADI advertisement agency and
its former business manager wrote about it in a brochure: "The
participation in cultural events." The "100 Idols of the 20th Century
assures sponsors in the most important countries of the world realization of a
degree of familiarity and image over a long period of time. By mentioning
names in media journalism, appearance in TV shows, credits on all print products
connected with the project, special books and 100 posters, a say-so in the
selection of the idols and the works, patronage for the planned permanent
exhibition and more. Even the expenses would be covered in the beginning of
1987 by Peter Gerhards, Gemadi business manager (who was outed by high-ranking
ex-Scientologist Gunther Traeger as a Scientologist in 1993 in issue 10 of "Spiegel"
magazine. Spiegel: "Do you know of activities in your area, marketing?
Traeger: Peter Gerhards, a Scientologist at the time, had arranged Steffi Graf's
promotion contract with Opel and Gabriela Sabatini's with Seat. Scientology
memos were also mentioned which said that large enterprises like General Motors
and Coca Cola should be consulted.) Then for a total expenditure of 24 million
(!) marks over a course of 5 years, the sponsor would have exposure in front of
nearly 700 million people. No additional costs ..." What a surprise.
Idols for Scientology
Viennese book author Steiden, former member of the "Scientology Austria"
organization, also wrote in 1992 in his book, "Einsteins falsche Erben"
["Einstein's false legacy"] which appeared that same year and which he
added to and republished in 1997:
WDR television journalist Egmont R. Koch was able to find material in the
areas of management consulting and training for his TV documentation on
Scientology "Looking for: Brainwashing." For instance, Scientologists
tried to infiltrate the renowned GEMADI business consulting firm. The company,
whose illustrious customers included Ford, Wella, AEG, Portas and others, was
looking for staff in the newly created area of Training and Schooling.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 37
"Other trainers, consultants and staff were added later on,"
stated GEMADI chief Manfred J. Kunz.
The Scientology infiltration plan was first discovered when a staff member
began to openly proselytize. Kunz: "We then found out that all these staff
members were Scientologists. That was part of a strategy. An extremely
dangerous venture for me personally, and for my staff and customers. If this
had not come to surface and the infiltration would have progressed then the
communications we received and the consultation would have been according to
Scientology's interpretation. That would have meant the end of my agency and
me, personally."
Simultaneously with Peter Gerhards, business co-manager of the renowned
GEMADI German advertising company, and who was then a Scientologist receiving
work from Helnwein, beginning in April 1987 I, too, was to offer Helnwein's
major "Idols" project to perspective sponsors worldwide, which
naturally led to some friction later on because some of the companies had
already been covered by Gerhards and vice versa. Helnwein, as was his habit,
very quickly dissatisfied with the efforts which were, in his eyes, inadequate
in the promotion of his big project.
For that reason on September 30, 1987, only three months after the contract
had been finalized, an intense meeting took place as to how a rapid success
could be implemented between myself, Gottfried and Renate Helnwein and
Helnwein's Scientology colleague Peter Gerhards, business manager who had not
yet been outed as a Scientology mole, in which GEMADI would realize 4 million
marks commission if successful. Gerhards immediately apologized to Helnwein for
the failures to date in efforts by GEMADI, which had expended a small fortune
for the Helnwein thus far, giving a bad reputation to his boss, chief executive
officer and company associate Kunz, whom he now, in personal conversation with
Helnwein, was holding completely responsible for this failure, thereby avoiding any
responsibility himself.
The result of our discussion was an "angry" letter from Helnwein
to Kunz. On November 5, 1987 he wrote: "To my deliberate inquiry as to how
the Idols Project was going, I was informed by Mr. Gerhards that an active
marketing of the project by GEMADI Co. is no longer an issue and that the
company is no longer prepared to invest further in the project.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 38
Gottfried Helnwein in Krems, Austria, May 1991
(Photo:
AR)
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 39
Gottfried Helnwein personally corrected this sponsorship
contract
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 40
But a presentation can only come about if your company is ready to send your
staff to the appropriate customers in order to fully inform them about the
project and to show and to illustrate the picture and demonstration material.
Since a plan of this scale cannot be realized without financial expense, I
propose dissolution of the contract by mutual agreement. I think this proposal
is fair and in both our interests." Perceptibly surprised, Kunz responded
to the Helnwein letter only four days later, on November 9, 1987: "Surely
the communication between Mr. Gerhards and you has not been going well,
otherwise you would not have been able to come to a false conclusion.
GEMADI, in accordance with the contract, has been investing a considerable
amount in the marketing of the project for weeks and months. Mr. Gerhards has
spoken to a number of businesses in and out of the country; I, in turn, have
made a large number of personal contacts and sent the resulting documents in for
assessment. My personal meetings, unfortunately, all had negative results not
least of all because you, my dear Mr. Helnwein, certainly have a prominent name
in insider circles, but are little known or not known at all in the broad
public. This was a factor which I could not have evaluated initially. This was
a factor I had to learn.
Certainly Mr. Gerhards did not tell you that GEMADI was no longer marketing
the project. Of course, I myself am ready, or am also ready, to send a
qualified staff member to present the project to a qualified customer.
The only thing I can think of to explain your opinion, in addition to the
expenditures which Mr. Gerhards and I have talked about, is my refusal to
finance a trip for several weeks to the USA by Mr. Stahl, because groping
blindly in the dark does not promise any great chance of success.
Because Mr. Stahl's offer to travel to America for the project would
have cost more than several hundred thousand, not including his fee in the event
of success, I could see no sense in sending him, to put it mildly. In the event
that our mailing operations produce qualified contacts with celebrities,
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 41
then I would be the first one to jump on the plane to make the presentation
so that the project could come about.
I agree with you completely, that a project of this magnitude requires
financial outlay; Mr. Gerhards and I had agreed on that. We have made
expenditures and will continue to do so as long as there are measures which
promise success to GEMADI. On the other hand, I have to make it clear to you
that a project of this magnitude cannot be sold by order form. You have to give
us the time agreed upon in the contract so that we do not miss an opportunity to
reap what we have sown
I do not at all regard your proposal as fair, but as being only in your own
interest, therefore I am not ready to make a concession."
So much for business manager Kunz and his clear rejection to Helnwein's
proposal. It did not do him much good, though, because just two months later
Kunz and GEMADI were out of the deal and Helnwein was contracting directly with
Peter Gerhards and the "Gerhards, Hansen and Partners Marketing Consultants"
in Frankfurt am Main. Then, in early 1990, Peter Gerhards' company "Intercom
Inc." in Mainz took over the exclusive "Idols" marketing for
Helnwein. The final, most promising, last possible sponsor and "last
resort" whom Gerhards and his new partner, Scientologist Roland Stahl,
wanted to win since spring 1990 was "Volkswagen AG" in Wolfsburg.
Helnwein's "new" sponsor seeker, Roland Stahl, had, like Helnwein, been
one of the high-trained Scientologists in Germany. Among other things he is
chairman of the review board in "Kempe AG" in Duesseldorf, a real
estate company founded by top Scientologists Klaus Kempe and his wife Marietta,
both "OT's." In 1984 Gottfried Helnwein had rented his castle in
Burgbrohl from the Kempes. Kempe, like Helnwein, is a leading, influential key
figure in the German-speaking Scientology world. The hidden circle of
Scientology cronies was closing quickly.
Stahl and Renate Helnwein had a particularly outspoken, friendly
relationship. For instance, they mutually encouraged each other when, once
again, the sponsorship deals were not going along properly. His friend Renate,
in pure Scientologese, per fax from her villa in Clearwater: "Dear Roland
... Let's make a good postulate ....", which, translated, means, "Let's
do something wild and new."
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 42
Helnwein consultant Peter Reichelt
(from: "Viennese"
picture archive)
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 43
Kempe and his partner Stahl are also WISE licensees and have the mission of
introducing Hubbard technology into German companies. Roland Stahl and his
company "Stahl and Partners - Training center for Management Forces of
companies with Technical Products" is also on lists internal to
Scientology. Stahl is the brother of Helgard Hahn, Director of the "Celebrity
Center Munich." His wife Tatjana, nee Schuboeck, along with their entire
family are old-timers "in Scientology." When asked by
journalists about his Scientology membership, Roland Stahl abruptly dodges the
question with "I can't tell you that." As one sees, Stahl apparently
suffers from memory loss. The same as his employer, Helnwein, Stahl is clearly
not among the professed Scientologists. Particularly in the business areas
today, Scientology is trying "to pursue strategic objectives through cover
and sub-organizations to carry forward Scientology's ideology," wrote
Scientology's most successful critic, Renate Hartwig, in her "Robin Direkt
Report" of September 1996.
With that, Gerhards settled into a spot which was custom-made for him.
Nevertheless, it did not do him any good, despite GEMADI's cost-intensive
preparatory work. In spite of Gerhards' and Stahl's efforts, Helnwein's project
remained unsalable. Even the VW corporation finally turned them down in March
1991. The reason: Helnwein's bad image caused by his support of Scientology and
the associated anxiety about getting negative headlines with Helnwein, and this
was already happening in 1991! On April 21, 1991 Gerhard and Stahl finally
threw in the towel. They ended things quickly and painlessly in a letter to
Helnwein.
I also had great problems in profitably selling the "Idols"
project. The total sponsor expenses for the operation, as estimated by Helnwein
and me over a ten year minimum period, would have run over 50 (!) million DM [1
DM was approx .75 USD]. It would certainly have been the greatest art and
culture spectacle of all time with multiple over-sized paintings comparable to
Andre Heller's "Luna Luna Park" in the mid-1980s, but this exclusively
by one artist. It would have been a fascinating perspective, and not just for
Helnwein.
My search for sponsors, independent of GEMADI and Peter Gerhards, or
Gerhards and Stahl, took me twice around the globe between 1987 and 1990.
Whether at "Coca Cola" in Atlanta, "BMW" in Munich,
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 44
"Budweiser" Beer in Florida, "Fosters" Beer in Sydney,
after over 200 more or less friendly refusals by potential donors. As with my
colleagues, Helnwein's Scientology membership was frequently the decisive factor
in the negative decisions by the presiding business managers. In fall 1991,
Helnwein finally "postponed" his "Idols" project "until
further notice."
The "Faces" Photo Project
Nevertheless, my years of effort were not totally in vain. As a "side
product" of his over-sized project, in 1978 Helnwein had developed the
parallel celebrities project "Faces":
Large photo portraits, photographed almost exclusively in black and white,
of legendary actors, singers, artists of every color, writers and athletes.
He had needed these photographs to be able to put his "Idols"
project into effect.
We had to make haste because very many of the people whom Helnwein had
selected to be in the portraits were on the far side of 80 years old. But that
was not the only big problem. It required an ungodly amount of persistence and
power of persuasion and, above all else, "special connections" to get
these people to sit in front of the camera lens.
Lech Walesa, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Charles
Bukowski, Phil Collins, Keith Haring, Billy Wilder, Sting, Reinhold Messner,
Dietmar Schoenherr, Ute Lemper, Arno Breker, Leni Riefenstahl .. the list of the
people in the portraits between 1987 and 1991 is impressive in retrospect and is
still getting longer.
Arno Breker
The meetings with film producer and photographer Leni Riefenstahl and
sculptor and architect Arno Breker, two of the last living icons of the Hitler
regime, were both exciting and exceedingly interesting.
I needed several years for the preparation of the two photo sessions. That
was mostly due to the bad experiences with the two had had in past years with
various visitors.
Arno Breker, in his magnificent villa with a giant, closed-in studio for his
large plastic sculptures in the north of Duesseldorf, received us a total of
two times in 1988 and 1989 in an extremely friendly manner, and not at all
with the skepticism and reserved attitude we had anticipated.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 45
Helnwein and Breker conducted a highly interesting dialogue over coffee and
cookies, primarily about the changes in the methods of viewing in diverse
branches of art in their time.
One could have thought that these were two completely different artists, the
40-year-old Helnwein and the over 80 years old Breker, nonetheless I had the
feeling that both of them understood each other brilliantly from the onset, they
were on the same wavelength, so to speak. Breker calmly and reservedly spoke in
his gentle, almost timid, style of his many successful attempts to enable Jewish
artists to flee the country during the time of the Third Reich. Nevertheless,
he seemed most human when he talked of "the German boycott of my works of
art through the art trade from the end of the Second World War up til today."
Breker, seeming many years younger, then led us through his house, his
over-sized "sculpture garden" which was decorated exclusively with his
own works, primarily from the 1930s and '40s, and his giant, sun-lit studio with
busts which had been completed or just begun. Helnwein especially liked that
location as the ideal background for his photo portrait of Breker.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 46
After almost two hours of patient, wordless posing, we left Breker's house,
after a friendly good-bye, with, as it later turned out, fascinating portraits
of one of the most highly controversial personalities, perhaps even the best
portrait work done by Helnwein to date.
Leni Riefenstahl meets L. Ron Hubbard - 1960
We visited Leni Riefenstahl at her house in Poecking on Starnberger Lake in
summer 1990. The meeting, also over coffee and cookies, was very reserved on
both sides. This time it was turned around. Helnwein was very solemn and Leni
Riefenstahl resolutely stated her standpoints.
The following episode is unknown in Scientology circles, and it shows that what
goes around in life comes around, in this case as pertains to the relationship
between Riefenstahl, Hubbard and his young disciple Helnwein. In summer 1960,
Leni Riefenstahl was working on the new production of her film classic, "Das
blaue Licht"/["The Blue Light"]. For her project, she obtained a
prominent American script writer, L. Ron Hubbard. Leni Riefenstahl described
this in her memoirs, which appeared in 1987 from Knaus publishing: "...
Good reports came from England. Philip, my producer, reported almost daily on
the progress of his work. To be sure, Somerset Maughem had withdrawn after the
newspaper attacks on me, but, as Philip wrote, he had been able to gain a gifted
American author for work on the film. 'This American,' he wrote
enthusiastically, 'is a brilliant and gifted script writer who wrote many
scripts for Columbia Films in Hollywood. He is also head of a large
international organization which is spread over the entire planet and has over a
million members. His name is Dr. L. Ron Hubbard, he is a psychologist and a
Scientologist.' At that time, I had no idea who Ron Hubbard was, but I soon
became aware that he must have been gifted. The first part of his work was
surprisingly good. Mr. Hubbard sent me the following effusive telegram: 'We can
win several Oscars with the wonderful story of Blue Light - forget the trial and
the reporters and let's work together - it will be a great, record-breaking
film...' A fanaticizer ... Dr. Ron Hubbard put an apartment at my disposal in
London where I was to interpret the newly prepared manuscript into theatrical
script. He was unexpectedly called to South Africa, where he also had a
company. Despite that, I could go in his house, which was occupied in his absence
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 47
by a housekeeper ... I also hoped to begin filming soon after the prepared
script for Blue Light had been so magnificently managed by Dr. Hubbard ..."
This post-war project by Leni Riefenstahl failed shortly before filming was to
have begun.
"At this time of great despair in summer 1961 came from Dr. Hubbard in
South Africa a letter which, at first glance, aroused hope in me. He invited me
to Johannesburg to make a documentary film on South Africa. He said money was no
problem. He also hoped to gain my cooperation by establishing modern film and
recording studios (!) there. I was so excited, my heart was pounding at the
very thought of being able to work again, and in Africa at that." This
overblown project from Hubbard also burst like a soap bubble. Hubbard fulfilled
his big dream of his own film studio almost two decades later, at the end of the
1970s, with his Golden Era Film Productions in Gilman Hot Springs.
Leni Riefenstahl, just turned 89 years old, stood patiently for more than two
hours for Gottfried Helnwein in her nice house. We left her house with the nice
garden contently. Our luggage included several personally signed Riefenstahl
photos. Helnwein was very satisfied and thrilled that it had finally worked
out. Unfortunately, Leni Riefenstahl was not exactly enthused by the final
prints. When she was able to take assessment of her black and white portrait
several years later, she hit the roof. "You can see every single one of my
wrinkles!" she screamed, horrified, and wanted her photo to be taken down
immediately. The friendship she had begun with Helnwein was immediately ended
after that experience.
Reinhold Messner
In 1988, the southern Tyrol high mountain climber, Reinhold Messner, found
himself on the same wavelength as Helnwein. At the time they were travelling
together with their wives from Munich. Helnwein and Messner conducted, in my
eyes, an extremely interesting discussion in Helnwein's private chambers
during a photo session for the "Faces" project.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 48
The main topic of discussion between the two in the large living room on the
second story of Helnwein's castle until the late evening was the teachings of "Buddhism"
in its various manifestations. When one knows that the "Scientology
Organization" falsely states its roots are in "Buddhism", then it
immediately becomes clear why this meeting lasted so many hours and was to
finally lead to a years-long friendship between the two. One year later Messner
bought several works on commission from Helnwein, dramatic mountain motifs of
course, to hang in his castle in South Tyrol.
My sense of Messner during this conversation was one of a fervent defender of
the Buddhist faith, and I heard Helnwein's lance for the teachings of Hubbard
break for the first time in my presence - that was in 1988.
Still, there were several of the big celebrities of the time who turned the "Faces"
project down. Whether for Paul and Linda McCartney, Madonna or Bob Dylan, we
still had to pull back with all our camera equipment from concert halls in
Dortmund, Offenbach and Munich; they did not want Helnwein in their wardrobe,
although I was able to explain the project to them in detail in their dressing
rooms to see if there was initial interest. In those cases, they probably
found the several sketches which I presented in deference to them, mildly
stated, "too extreme," as they clearly stated to me.
Ina Brockman meets Gottfried Helnwein
"1993, it is fall and one of the last beautiful sunny afternoons [of the
year]. Gottfried Helnwein, sitting up straight across from us with a face almost
without movement. Us, that means Peter Reichelt, my joint proprietor and
Helnwein's business manager, and I were sitting on wooden chairs in the garden.
My first visit to the artist whose catalog I had bought a couple of days before
for 9 DM. I thought that his work was being sold too cheaply.
The sun was shining, we got soft strawberry cakes from that morning and coffee
which was served from the glass pitcher which came from the coffee maker. The conversation
was cold, like the coffee, and got increasingly moreso. Sometime later I was
permitted to accompany the two gentlemen to a work room in Helnwein's residence.
Square chests of drawers and work surfaces stood about.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 49
Everything creatively well-ordered in front of white-washed walls. Renate
Helnwein, who had been moving around in sight of us the entire time talking on
her cellular phone disappeared, but came back to stand in the room a short time
later, holding new shoelaces from the village. The newly bought shoelaces found
their way from her hands to those of her husband, Gottfried. His body was
turned away from her. He took them from her without a word and threw them
straight onto one of the tables without saying a word of thanks to her. I have
always seen Gottfried Helnwein wearing only leather cowboy boots, and never with
shoelaces.
My contact to Helnwein was exclusively at the business level. All in all there
were three somewhat long confrontations. During those, I cannot recall ever
having entered into a spoken dialogue with him or even exchanging a complete
sentence, no matter how short. If something came up, then it was only about his
wife, Renate.
Thanks to her, I had a reason to enter Burgbrohl a second time. The occasion
was Helnwein's desire to include a Carl Barks watercolor which belonged to Peter
Reichelt in his Barks exhibition, as well as in the catalog. Therefore it had
to be reproduced, and they wanted it yesterday. Therefore I entered the lion's
den with the picture and a male escort. Renate Helnwein had agreed to the exact
time on the phone, and I appeared at the castle punctually with the picture
under my arm. A photographer was supposed to be present to photograph the
picture. Who was not there? The photographer. Who had forgotten the time, or
acted like she did? Renate Helnwein. But no problem, Renate said the
photographer had already been sent home, so I should just leave the picture
there. There was extreme tension in the air. The picture had considerable
value, so I turned down her suggestion. The photograph would be taken, the path
to the tower had been blazed, the expenses and insurance had been calculated,
and I wanted to get this thing behind me. First she had wanted me to hurry up,
or maybe she didn't? The mood was not getting better. During the dispute, the
two secretaries sat at their desks. So I told them that I would wait until the
photographer, whom she had just ordered by phone to return to the castle, had
arrived.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 50
We then moved with the object of dispute into the garden, Helnwein's private
realm, at the furthest end, where we found a massive wood table with a bench
waiting for us. In front of us was the entrance building to the castle with
Renate's office, and on the right side was the handsomely renovated Helnwein
residence. The only friendly reaction we got was from the elderly housekeeper,
Mrs. Linke. She alone wished us a good day and helped us pass the time with a
large pitcher of hot coffee.
Finally we finished the coffee and the photographer arrived. We again ran
forward to the entrance building, where the large lobby was. The lights were set
up and, after Renate Helnwein had signed the forms such as insurance, with
grumbling on her part, and the picture was positioned under the camera. And now
came the big moment, the door must have opened up behind me. Helnwein entered
the large room. Anybody who is not aware of how bright photography lamps can be
should not miss the chance of seeing such a gracious and wordless entrance such
as Helnwein's was.
One look at the picture and he was gone. The whole thing lasted about the same
amount of time it takes to down a black expresso without sugar.
A little later we were on the autobahn with the picture in the car's trunk. It
was a nightmare and nothing else."
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 51
The End - 1994
Our ambivalent friendship along with our almost eight-year successful business
relationship finally broke up in March 1994 with my clear criticism of the
person of Gottfried Helnwein. The content is outlined as follows:
-
Gottfried and Renate Helnwein's persistent non-distancing from the Scientology
Organization, in particular since 1992, and their progressive lies and denial of
their decades of involvement with Scientology.
-
Helnwein's brutal "dealing" with his critics in reference to his own
and his wife, Renate's, membership to the Scientology Organization, which had
resulted in a total of more than 14 lawsuits and out-of-court settlements since
1991.
-
Helnwein's influence on one of my best friends and partners at the time, actor
Dietmar Schoenherr, with all the resulting consequences and
-
Gottfried Helnwein's personal and business dealings with the man he had idolized
from his earliest childhood, Carl Barks, today 96 years old, whose personal
advisor and agent I became in spring 1994.
Dietmar Schoenherr
Dietmar Schoenherr meets Gottfried Helnwein at Burgbrohl
- 1992
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 52
In the same month, in March 1994, my friendship of nine years, since 1985, with
the "development assistant" and former "Wuensch Dir Was"
moderator, Dietmar Schoenherr, also broke up. I had introduced Schoenherr to
Helnwein in 1988 at Burgbrohl. It was my idea, together with Schoenherr, to get
Helnwein artistically involved in supporting a cultural project which
Schoenherr and I had organized, "House of the three worlds," in
Granada, Nicaragua. Over the course of the following year, it developed into an
intensive friendship between Schoenherr and Helnwein. It peaked in the winter
of 92/93 with a visit by the Helnwein family to Nicaragua for the opening
celebration of our cultural center after a year of fastidious renovation work.
Beginning at that time, Schoenherr began to keep his distance more from me.
Communication between him and me decreased visibly. Helnwein, in turn,
intensified his relationship to the same degree with Schoenherr as he distanced
himself, step by step, from me. In 1992 and 1993 it became visibly apparent to
me who Helnwein really is. I bid adieu to my naive concept that Helnwein was "only"
a well-known artist, someone who one could market worldwide in this form without
objection. I understood too late that, without knowing what I was doing, I had
"supplied" Helnwein with countless world stars, many of whom were my
friends, and that I had served a system without my being aware of it. I noticed that his
artistic productivity which he presented on the outside was, for the most part,
feigned. He would spend months in the USA, in Clearwater and Los Angeles,
without painting one picture.
Instead of that he intently dedicated himself to building up his martyr role as
a persecuted "non"-Scientologist. He adeptly played with the media
and with me. In the beginning of 1994, I learned from a disinterested party (!)
that in May, two artists from our building in Nicaragua were to go to the
Helnwein castle for purposes of furthering their training. I already had the
greatest objection. Helnwein is a Scientologist. In the 1970s he directed a
Scientology artist center in Vienna for many years, since the mid-1980s a "continuing
development" [Scientology center] in Burgbrohl. I told this to my friend Schoenherr in March
1994 during a meeting in Duesseldorf. He did not want to believe me. He only
said, "Helnwein is not a Scientologist!" and that, as far as he was
concerned, was that. I started to be afraid that our cultural building in
Granada would be infiltrated and turned into some form of Scientology.
Unfortunately, I was not able to convince Schoenherr of my concern. ... A
couple of days later, I flew to the USA for one week.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 53
G O T T F R I E D H E L N W E I N
To
Peter Reichelt 26.8.91
fax
Hello Peter,
Our fax was out of order for three days due to
the floor being sealed -- no one could go in
the room.
I faxed you after L.A. - I assume that I will
get your answer in the next few days.
Peter, - you must still have the box [?] which the
Schwarzenegger office sent back to you.
Please send the entire thing, packed up
special delivery to us.
ARC Renate
Renate Helnwein to Peter Reichelt on the "Schwarzenegger"
matter.
Two years later Helnwein knew nothing more about it. At the end is
the Hubbard form of sign-off, the ARC triangle.
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 54
Dres. JUNG & WETH
Attorneys at Law
Mr. Cologne
Peter Reichelt March 23, 1994
Dear Mr. Reichelt,
Mr. Gottfried Helnwein, Burg Brohl, 56659 Burgbrohl, has retained us.
Our client has learned that you, without his knowledge or authorization,
presented yourself to Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger as "Helnwein Office"
and demanded all private documents, photographs and pictures etc. of our client,
which were then sent to you.
In the same manner you presented yourself as "Helnwein Office" to the
Bildkunst Firm in Bonn without authorization or knowledge of our client, and
demanded documents regarding Helnwein and contracts with telephone card
companies.
At the Austrian "Wiener" magazine you collected the fees after
publication of a photo story by our client (Mode/New York) and gave them a bill
on writing paper with the name and address of our client, but with the addition
of your name.
- 2 -
Scan of original German
Helnwein issued a legal warning to Reichelt concerning "Arnold
Schwarzenegger"
See the letter on the previous page.
[Also see "Helnwein
FACES" credits listing Peter Reichelt on page 45]
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 55
- 2 -
This was communicated to our client when he inquired about the fee of "Wiener"
magazine. Only after our client insisted did you then forward the fees due him.
Furthermore you have told several persons, whom you have gotten to know through
our client, that you had the main part of the creation of the FACES photography
set and the accompanying book of the same name. You asserted this, for example,
to Mrs. Wild, gallery director in Frankfurt, and to our client's business
partner, Mr. Carsten Laqua.
In reality you did not have a part in the production of the FACES portrait set
or in the book by the same name. All photographic portraits originate
exclusively from our client. You assisted neither in the work nor assisted in
any way in the darkroom. You only gave the wife of our client several addresses
of the people in the portraits.
Finally, you asserted to "Spiegel" in the "Spiegel" report
about our client's "Carl Barks" exhibition that the book which belongs
to our client "Who is Carl Barks" was already outdated, was not
entirely current and also contained primarily pictures and little text. The
name of our client's book and the description of pictures and quotes from our
client's book, which had not yet appeared, were then repeated in "Spiegel"
magazine.
The above-mentioned activity describes a serious violation of PP 1 and 3 UWG.
Your presenting yourself as "Helnwein Office" can be regarded as
fulfilling the conditions of fraud to the detriment of our client.
- 3 -
Scan of original German
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 56
- 3 -
Therefore we require that you, within a time period of 1 week from the receipt
of this letter, submit the enclosure to this letter, a statement of default
as to the contents of this letter which is legally binding and subject to
penalty.
If you should not keep to this deadline, then we will initiate legal steps in
the name of our client.
We bring it to your particular attention that by submitting a legally binding
statement of default, you would remove danger of repetition of your above
conduct and would prevent the filing of a temporary restraining order against
yourself.
You have incurred the following expenses calculated from the viewpoint of
business management according to current legal practice:
Object value: DM 100,000.00
7.5 percent business fee iaw P 118 par. 1 nr. 1 BRAGO DM 1,416.80
lump expenses iaw P 26 BRAGO DM 40.00
-----------
DM 1,456.80
15% MW tax DM 218.52
-----------
Total DM 1,675.32
Cordially
/signature/
enclosure: statement of default
Scan of original German
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 57
Statement of Default
I, Peter Reichelt, hereby obligate myself to Mr. Gottfried Helnwein as to the
following, in the name of myself and in the name of the company which I
represent, Brockmann and Reichelt Inc.
1. The following will be avoided:
a) representing myself or my company to a third person
as "Helnwein Office";
b) asserting that I am a manager or employee of Mr. Helnwein;
c) demanding the turning over of photographs, pictures, contracts
or other documents of Mr. Helnwein with the claim that I am
empowered to do so by Mr. Helnwein;
d) claiming that the "FACES" portrait set or the book by the
same name by Mr. Helnwein was even only partly my work.
2. For each case of transgression of the obligations listed under
paragraph 1, to pay a contract penalty in the amount of DM 10,000.00
to Mr. Gottfried Helnwein
Mannheim, date ................ _______________________________
(Peter Reichelt)
(Also as business manager of
the company, Brockmann and
Reichelt, Inc.)
Scan of original German
Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter
Reichelt, 1997 - Page 58
Dietmar Schoenherr visiting Helnwein, 1992
(Photo:
AR)
When I got back I found that Dietmar Schoenherr, in my absence, had closed all the
foundation bank accounts and transferred the funds to his own private account.
What or who moved him to do that has not been explained as of the present day.
One can only speculate. As a result of that, two years later he was convicted
of beach of trust on February 6, 1996 by Mannheim Municipal Court, number AZ 29
Cs 49 / 96. His conviction became legally binding on February 11, 1997.
Peter Reichelt (SHSP)
in May 1997
