Bernd Zimmer founded an artist group with like-minded friends as a young man. In 1977 in Berlin, Zimmer, Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé and others called themselves the "Neue Wilde" (New Savages) and opened their own exhibition space, the Galerie am Moritzplatz.
Their painting style was temperamental, colourful, expressive and representational - in a time, when abstraction was the measure of all things and representational painting was frowned upon. The paragons of the New Savages were the artists of the Brücke. They wanted to liberate themselves from intellectual painting. Zimmer continued this path until today.