The publishing house was founded in the fall of 1968 as the Verlag der Gebr. König, Cologne-New York and debuted at the Cologne Art Show in the "Treuen Husar" with the book "OBJEKTE, benutzen" (OBJECTS, use them) by Franz Erhard Walther. The opening of the bookstore (art, architecture, film, fashion, photography) occurred one year later. In this same year, the publishing house had its own booth at the Frankfurt Book Convention and was represented at the Cologne Art Show, and the "Big Book" by Alison Knowles was introduced in cooperation with the Rowohlt publishing house. Gebr. König published the first artists' books by A.R. Penck, Jörg Immendorf, Stanley Brouwn, Claus Böhmler, and Gilbert & George (who also made an appearance in the window of the bookstore).
After Kasper König's retirement in 1983, the Verlag der Gebr. König, Cologne-New York was transformed into the Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne. Each year 150-200 titles in distribution by internationally known artists - often in cooperation with museums and galleries - have been published: books by On Kawara, Martin Kippenberger, George Brecht, Christian Boltanski, Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner. The publishing house also publishes books on art history and aesthetics, reprints of classic artists' books, and exhibition catalogues.