Janssen Publishers was founded in Berlin, Germany in 1979 under the name Janssen Verlag by Volker Janssen - a former salesman, photographer & journalist.

He is also the founder of Galerie Janssen, which opened in 1981 as the first gallery worldwide on the subject of "Men in Art". The gallery published smaller items like postcards, posters & so on.

In the mid 80's Volker started to publish small catalogues to promote the gallery & the exhibiting artists. They sold well & the idea was born to publish photographic books.

In the late 80's Janssen Verlag grew into a publishing company that became more popular & successful than the gallery. High quality coffee table books were published featuring the work of European & international artists photographing the male nude. The first Ralf-König comic books were also published after he had his exhibition at Galerie Janssen. Janssen Publisher's book catalogue is now distributed worldwide, & is particularly popular with the US market.

In 1991 the Janssen Publishers mail order service was launched offering a huge A4 catalogue featuring an ever-expanding range of photographic art books, & new items like classic & modern male bronze statues, a t-shirt collection, rainbow flags & so on. There is something to suit every gay collector's taste.

In 1996 Volker sold Galerie Janssen (which still exists as a gay sex shop) & moved to Cape Town, South Africa. The publishing house was renamed to Janssen Publishers & started to operate from South Africa in 1997. After the move to Africa, Volker began to specialize in photo books featuring African & African American models & artists. In 2005 he launched the new periodical book series "BLACK" which is selling successfully worldwide.

Since 2009 Janssen Publishers is also a publisher of gay erotic DVDs. No ordinary porn movies, but artistic slideshows with African models. Historic, & other gay blue movies from all over the world. This will be continued in 2010.

Thank you for your compliments & support over the last 30 years.