The town has an old German Schutztruppe fortress from the year 1896, which today houses a museum that expounds on the local history.

The economic mainspring of the area were for many decades the Berg Aukas and Abenab mines to the north east of the town.

Namibia is a dolomite country and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts of the mine have yielded interesting fossils of simian or pongoid creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved.

Grootfontein is also home of Namibia's main military base which housed several units of the now departed South African Defence Force.

[11] The 2015 local authority election was won by Namibia's ruling SWAPO party which gained five seats and 2,019 votes.

The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, obtained 653 votes and gained two seats.

The city also hosts a private German medium primary school (Deutsche Privatschule Grootfontein - DPG).