Lists range from museum guides, to encyclopaedias, art and architecture monographs to facsimile volumes and books for children.
Founded in 1924 by Hermann Loeb in Frankfurt, Germany, originally for the publication of old master prints, the company is named after Johann Gottlieb Prestel, the famous 18th-century German engraver.
At the end of the 19th century, one of his heirs converted the business into an auction house, which the antiquarian Albert Voigtländer-Tetzner acquired in 1910.
As a result, Prestel Verlag was sold to Paul Capellmann, a lawyer from Aachen, who converted the company into a limited partnership based in Munich in 1940.
The books stored in Leipzig and the office in Munich fell victim to the Second World War, and on 15 February 1945 the Reich Chamber of Culture closed Prestel Verlag.
Following Capellmann's death in 1947, his widow Georgett and Stresow took over the publishing house and expanded its production from books on drawings and prints to include painting, architecture, and photography.
[16] The ownership shares were divided in three equal parts between Martin Dort and Johannes Heyne – who between them owned the publishing companies Christian Verlag and Frederking & Thaler – and Prestel's managing director Jürgen Krieger.
[18][19] Martin Dort and Johannes Heyne left the company, and Christian Verlag and Frederking & Thaler were sold to publishing house GeraNova Bruckmann.
[22] As part of the integration of Prestel into the Random House publishing group, Prestel-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG was deleted from the commercial register in 2009.