The five villages of the municipality are located in an elongated valley on the shores of the Grundlsee, which is framed on three sides by the approximately 1000 meters towering foothills of the Dead Mountains.

The most striking mountains that frame this valley are the Hundskogel ( 1748 m ), the Backenstein ( 1772 m ) and the Reichenstein ( 1913 m ) in the north, the Elm ( 2128 m ), the Große Hochkasten ( 2389 m ) and the Weiße Wall ( 2198 m ) in the east, the Turkenkogel ( 1756 m) and the Röthelstein ( 1614 m ) in the south.

The Dead Mountains, whose foothills surround Grundlsee on three sides, consist mainly of limestone and dolomite, which originated in the Mesozoic seas, especially the Triassic and Jurassic, about 210 to 135 million years ago.

The west Grundlsee towards Bad Aussee features a high glacial ground moraine from the Würm-glacial period.

The gypsum and anhydrite deposit at the settlement of Wienern ( Gößl ) was built from the Upper Permian to the Scythian and consists of alpine Haselgebirge.

The settlement nuclei of the villages Bräuhof, Archkogel, Mosern and Untertressen in the west of the municipality are completely on alluvial plains, slope debris areas and ground moraines which are mostly in the Würm-glacial, sometimes postglacial originated.

The result is, in the case of flow conditions from the west to the north, often days of precipitation, which in winter are accompanied by a lot of snow.

The earliest evidence of human settlement activity in Grundlseer community area form Paleolithic finds in the Salzofen cave in the Dead Mountains.

These findings can be explained in the context of Hallstatt only 20 km away, which was due to its archaeological significance eponymous for the early Iron Age (800-450 BC).

The younger Iron Age / La Tène period (500-100 BC), which was carried by the Celts, left no archaeological traces.

After the death of the last Babenberg Duke Frederick II in 1246, the chosen archbishop of Salzburg, Philipp von Spanheim, occupied large parts of the Enns Valley and thus also the Ausseerland.

In order to fortify the new claim to power and to protect the nearby salt mines on the Sandling massif and the mule tracks, he built the small fortress Pflindsberg in neighboring Altaussee.

Grundlsees role in this mono-economy was mainly the supply of brewing pans with the necessary firewood, which required salt extraction forestry.

In addition, the workers employed in this branch were mostly small part-time farmers who, together with their family members, produced a part of the essential products themselves.

Archduke Johann of Austria met his future wife Anna Plochl at the Toplitzsee in August 1819.

Soon it attracted many artists and representatives of Viennese society to Grundlsee, which had become since 1850 by the abolition of the manorial system (1848) a political community.

Another painter working in Grundlsee is Johann Matthias Ranftl, after whom the Ranftlmühle, built in 1850, is named on the Stimitzbach.

Among the artists and intellectuals who spent their summer vacation in Grundlsee, or settled there permanently, the industrialist and folklorist Konrad Mautner, the neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and the conductor Herbert von Karajan are particularly noteworthy.

For example, three National Socialist Gauleiters regularly spent their holidays in the neighboring town of Altaussee: August Eigruber, Konrad Henlein and Hugo Jury.

In August of the same year began the storage of art treasures from Austrian churches, monasteries and museums to protect them from bombing.

At the end of the war, the entire depot contained about 6,500 paintings as well as numerous statues, furniture, weapons, coins and libraries in eleven decommissioned factories.

There are rumors that gold reserves of the Third Reich, notes for numbered accounts and works of art were sunk in the lake.

The Ausseerland was part of the so-called Alpine fortress and 1944/45 a last retreat for National Socialist party and government agencies and Wehrmacht staffs.

Previously, a self-employed civil government under Albrecht Gaiswinkler had formed in Bad Aussee, which kept order.

Until 2011 Grundlsee was part of the political jurisdiction, Bad Aussee, which was converted from January 1, 2012 in a field office of the Lieutenant District Liezen.

With the Catholic parish church Grundlsee in the village Bräuhof and Messkapelle Gößl there are two official religious meeting rooms in the municipality.

The exhibition series Kunst am Steinberg takes place in the summer months in the premises of the Altaussee mine.

Since 2005 (however pausing in 2016 and 2017), in and around the village of Gößl, on a half summer sunday, there will be a party on the theme of art, culture, nature and people.

Due to its relatively secluded location in a basin, Grundlsee is only connected to the trans-regional road network in the west.

The surrounding mountains of the Totes Gebirge include a well-marked hiking network, the violet path of the cross-border long-distance trail Via Alpina leads through the municipality.