In Germany, he radically changes his way of working and now begins a series of large-format paintings consisting of several parts (diptychs, triptychs, poliptychs).
In doing so he combines photo-murals with abstract gestural and monochrome painting in oil and acrylic, also using reproductions of Caspar David Friedrich paintings and war documentary photographs. He assembles these to form what the critic Peter Gorsen calls "Bilderstrassen" (picture lanes). In doing this, Helnwein closely examines taboo subject matters and tackles terms such as "Untermensch" (sub-human), "entartete Kunst" (degenerate art), "lebensunwertes Leben" (life unworthy of life).