Horst Janssen (14 November 1929 – 31 August 1995)[1] was a German draftsman, printmaker, poster artist and illustrator.

The Horst Janssen Museum in his hometown of Oldenburg is dedicated to his legacy.

His life was marked by numerous marriages, outspoken opinions, alcoholism, and selfless dedication to the art of printmaking.

In 1942, he became a student at the National Political Institute of Education (German: Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt or napola) in Haselünne, Emsland, where an art teacher, Hans Wienhausen, encouraged his artistic talent.

In 1944, he was adopted by his mother's younger sister, Anna Janssen, and he moved to Hamburg, where she lived.

In 1950 his first child, son Clemens, was born and he wrote and illustrated his second book, Der Wettlauf zwischen Hase und Igel auf der Buxtehuder Heide (The race between the hare and the hedgehog on the Buxtehude Heath), for the birthday of a little girl named Friederike Gutsche.

They included "Baumwall" (Tree Mound; 1957); his first self-portraits, such as "Selbst-innig" (Intimate with Self; 1966) and poster designs, influenced by Ben Shan, for his own exhibitions.

[5] Another self-portrait, "Selbst singend" (Self, singing), shows the artist with wide open mouth, as if expressing "tiefe Welt- und Gottesverzweiflung" (profound despair about the world and God), according to a reviewer.

After this successful show, he suddenly switched to etching, becoming a pupil of Paul Wunderlich, whom he later considered a rival.

The following year, 1960, he married Verena von Bethmann Hollweg who, in 1961, gave birth to his third child, a son named Philip.

Wieland Schmied, the director of the kestnergesellschaft praised him as "der größte Zeichner außer Picasso.

[4] His works were seen in the tradition of Goya, Ensor, Klinger, Munch, Redon and Kubin.

Titles included "Totentanz" (Death Dance), "Idiot", "High Society", "Im Suff" (Sloshed), a self-portrait, "Twist tanzende Nutten" (Twist dancing hookers), "Klee und Ensor, um einen Bückling streitend" (Klee and Ensor, arguing over a kipper, "Bückling" carrying the double meaning, both a smoked herring and a bowing) and "Peter Lorre oder einer, der aus Berufung die schöne Aussicht versperrt".

[4] The collection, the first major public display of his work, was also shown in Hamburg, Darmstadt, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Munich and Basel.

His position as a respected artist was bolstered by winning Hamburg's Edwin Scharff Prize in 1966.

The following year, two of the most important people of his youth died, his Aunt Anna and his teacher Alfred Mahlau.

A trip with her to Svanshall, Skåne County, in southern Sweden led to many beautiful drawings of the coastlines.