The firm was founded in 1931 as an offset printer by Dr. Heinz teNeues. The printing plant was destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in Kempen. With his son Manfred, Heinz teNeues set up the first publishing program, which consisted of art prints and school posters. In 1958 the first teNeues art calendar was published. At the end of the 1960s greeting cards were added to the product range. In 1977 Dr. Manfred teNeues founded an independent teNeues publishing enterprise to separate it from the printing division.

In 1982 Manfred teNeues‘s eldest son Hendrik teNeues (1952–2019) founded the teNeues Publishing Company in New York, the company’s first overseas office. Subsidiaries were later established in London and Paris. The company produces calendars, greetings cards, posters, and blank books. The company also marketed art books by European publishers in the U.S. market.

In 1995 the first teNeues book line was founded in New York City with an emphasis on photography. In the same year, Sebastian teNeues (younger brother of Hendrik teNeues) joined the publishing group. In 1999, Dr. Manfred teNeues moved over to the company’s board of directors, whose president, Werner Klatten, is also managing director of the German Sports Council.

The corporation has a total of 130 employees as of 2010. It also operates retail stores in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, and Munich. teNeues has over 200 licensing partners from a wide variety of areas, such as art, photography, comics, music, sports, and entertainment, serves over 70 countries through subsidiaries, commercial representatives, or partner firms.