Franz Holß
Franz Holß is a pseudonym of Franz Wilhelm Meyer (1906-1957), left-wing activist and expressionist artist. Franz Meyer made strips, portraits, illustrations, water-colours, pen drawings and above all, linoprints.
In his drawings he fiercely attacks Fascism, Stalinism, and social-democracy. Meyers was active in the communist party in his country of birth, Germany, but became a Trotskyist. After the Nazi coupe d’etat, he escaped to the Netherlands, and became a political refugee in Belgium. In 1940, he was sent to France by the Belgium government with thousands of other left-wing political refugees. He saw many French prisons and concentration camps but his artistic talents kept him alive.
In 1942 he miraculously escaped to the United States, where he continued to live until its death in 1953 in a car accident.
Franz Meyer has remained relatively unknown as an artist and few people are nowadays familiar with his work.