[1] The organization was founded on May 12, 1856 by fellow researchers from the Academic Fraternity Hütte, in the small town of Alexisbad, with the first journal officially being released to the public in 1857.

In 1866 the VDI helped establish the predecessor of Technischer Überwachungsverein, the Dampfkesselüberwachungsvereinen (English: Steam boiler inspection association).

At the time, engineering was not regarded to be of the same ranking as scientific disciplines, which the VDI changed in 1899, with the re-categorisation of the Technische Hochschule as a type of University.

It also helped establish the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kerntechnik (English: Society for Nuclear Technology) in 1956, which resulted in the German Atomforum, in 1959.

In recent times, the VDI worked in conjunction with EXPO 2000 Hannover GmbH to establish the first worldwide engineering day.