Born too many years ago, at 8000 feet above sea level in the central Andean region of Colombia, Germán Téllez studied architecture in Bogotá at the then newly founded school of the Universidad de Los Andes. He graduated in 1958, and in 1974, received a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the same University.

Germán Téllez's first academic position was in teaching architectural design at Los Andes. However, he soon abandoned this pedagogical direction, deeming it to be a bad mistake. Instead he pursued his interest in the history of architecture (which he acquired during his graduate studies in France and Spain), and continued to teach at the Universidad de Los Andes until 1974. In 1965 he founded the Center for Aesthetic and Historic Research at the Universidad de Los Andes and supervised groups of students and architects through many restoration projects and analyses of historic zones in various cities in Colombia. In 1978, Germán Téllez was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the American Institute of Architects, for his work in preservation of the architectural heritage of Colombia, both as an architect and as a photographer. He also is a member of the Colombian Academy of History, an Honorary member of the Colombian Society of Architects and the co-ordinator for all UNESCO activities in Colombia. At present, Germán Téllez is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Design at the Jesuit Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, and is also Director of the Instituto "Carlos Arbeláez Camacho" para el Patrimonio Arquitectónico y Urbano (The "Carlos Arbeláez" Institute for Architectural and Urban Heritage), an academic unit of the same school.

As an author, Germán Téllez has published numerous books and has collaborated on many specialized magazines and collective historical and critical volumes. Among his works are: Norwich, A Photographic Essay, published in Connecticut, USA; Salmona. Architecture and Poetics of Place; Casa Colonial. Domestic Architecture in New Granada; Casa de Hacienda. Rural Architecture of Colombia; and Crítica & Imagen (Criticism and Image), a selection of short writings. His work as a specialist in restoration has earned him two national awards: one for the small fort of Manzanillo in Cartagena (a part of the main project by Rogelio Salmona for the new presidential house), and the second for the XVIIth century church of St. Augustine in Bogotá. Téllez maintains that he is just a writer who had to earn a living by practicing architecture and a professor who found that only way to keep learning was to teach something.