Cologne art Collector and patron Prof. Fritz Gruber and his wife Renate invite Helnwein to join their circle of friends (artists, writers, photographers, curators and intellectuals) who meet on a regular basis at his salons in his villa in Cologne.
Later some of the friends, amongst them Brian Eno, Alice Schwarzer and Alfred Biolek, rent a river-boat, originally built for King Faruk of Egypt and embarke on several journeys on the Nile. Hence the group called itself "The Nile-Society" (Nil-Gesellschaft)