The firm was founded as a publishing house and print shop in July 1835, in Gütersloh, by Carl Bertelsmann. At first Bertelsmann concentrated on Christian songs and books. In 1851, led by Carl Bertelsmann's son Heinrich, the company began publishing novels. During the following years Bertelsmann expanded steadily, acquiring in 1861 the publishing house S. G. Liesching in Stuttgart and in 1870 the Berlin-based printer J. D. Küster.
In 1910 the house began publishing its first newspaper, Zeitschrift Der Christliche Erzähler, which closed in 1917 in the wake of the Great War. Subsequently the firm concentrated on book publishing, transferring its headquarters from Gütersloh to Berlin in 1928. It was not until 1945 that the firm returned to newspaper publishing, taking a half-interest in the new Der Tagesspiegel.
With the financial backing of Bertelsmann Der Tagesspiegel quickly became one of Germany’s leading newspapers, acquiring its rivals Berliner Tageblatt and Berliner Abendpost early in 1946, and going on to purchase provincial newspapers including the Braunschweiger Zeitung, the Hannoverscher Anzeiger, and the Rheinische Post during 1946, making Der Tagesspiegel one of the first German newspapers with a national circulation.