Just 40 km south-west of Munich and with good views of the Alps, the town was traditionally a favourite holiday spot for those living in the city.

In 1873 Johannes Brahms spent four summer months in Tutzing, completing his String Quartets Opus 51 and writing the Haydn Variations.

Tutzing station is both a terminus of Munich's S-Bahn rail network and a regional train hub serving Innsbruck, Mittenwald, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Reutte, Kochel and Oberammergau.

Tutzing has been home to various German celebrities, including the former president of the Federal Constitutional Court Hans-Jürgen Papier, musicians Peter Maffay, Leslie Mándoki, and Elly Ney, the late Guido Dessauer, and the military general and theorist Erich Ludendorff, who died and is buried in the town.

During the Nazi period, Trutskirch-Tutzing (Dornier), a forced-labour factory for the Dornier-Werke GmbH aircraft concern, was a sub-camp of Dachau Concentration Camp.