The company Maschinenbau Stenzel for the trade and distribution of used machine tools was founded in 1913 by Georg Stenzel in Berlin. As early as 1925, he imported the first machines for the automotive industry from the USA. After his sudden death in 1926, his brother Werner took over the company, expanded the network of agents and soon became chairman of the German Machine Tool Trade Association. In 1932, the company was renamed Stenzel & Co. and Karl von Beauvais, the first employee, joined the management. The company imported special machines from the USA for the automotive industry and expanded its business contacts to Eastern Europe. In 1937, it began importing Czech machines, e.g. from Skoda. During the Second World War, the Berlin business premises were destroyed.

Since 1946, the company has been based in Wiesbaden, initially in Wilhelminenstraße. The company's main business at this time developed into representing Amertools, an American tool manufacturing ring. The company now moved its business premises to Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring and, at the end of the 1950s, to Schierstein. In the 1960s, Stenzel benefited greatly from the economic miracle, as the company mainly supplied machines for the German automotive industry - especially for Opel.

In 1968, the company changed its name to Stenzel & Co Maschinenhandelsgesellschaft mbH, and an expansion of the product range increased turnover. Michael Stenzel joined the company in 1971 and became the sole shareholder in 1987. At the end of 2005, Joseph Stenzel became the fourth generation to work in the machine tool trade at Stenzel GmbH, and has been the managing partner of the company based in Hellmundstraße in Wiesbaden since 2012.