The recorded history of the region and of the town began with the arrival of the Bavarians in the sixth century AD.

[4] In 746, the brothers Adalbert and Ottokar, of the noble family of Huosi, founded a Benedictine monastery, Tegernsee Abbey.

[5] Although much of the town's early history was lost as a result of Magyar incursions in the tenth century,[citation needed] it is known that relics of St. Quirinus, which the founders of the abbey obtained from Pope Paul I, were transferred in the eighth century from Rome to Tegernsee in order to be placed in its first church.

Thus removed from the suzerainty of the Bavarian rulers, the abbey recovered its prosperity [6] and grew culturally and artistically.

In the fifteenth century Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa corresponded with the abbot and the prior about issues including mystical theology.

They brought court life and visitors to the lake, starting the tourism that characterizes the area today.

In the final weeks of the war, an SS division moved into the valley and built defenses against the American forces advancing from Bad Tölz.

On May 3, 1945, as American artillery prepared to open fire on the town, a wounded officer in the German army, Maj. Hannibal von Lüttichau, who was recovering in the makeshift military hospital, persuaded the SS to withdraw in order to save the town and its large population of noncombatants from the imminent bombardment.

[12] Other historic buildings in Tegernsee include the homes of the writer Ludwig Ganghofer and the painter Joseph Karl Stieler, and the summer residence of Lord Acton.

It has 17 exhibition rooms, and its theme is the history and culture of the Tegernsee valley from the Middle Ages to the present.

[24] The railway station is the terminus of the privately owned Tegernsee-Bahn and is linked to Munich by through trains of the Bayerische Oberlandbahn.

[27] Dürnstein, Austria Tegernsee is the home town of Viktoria Rebensburg, an alpine ski racer who won the gold medal in the women's giant slalom at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The town also is home to the sports association TV Tegernsee, whose chess club played until the 2008–2009 season in the first division of the German Bundesliga.