In 1951-2, the Havel Canal was constructed through the municipality to link Hennigsdorf with Paretz, thus avoiding a passage through the reach of the River Havel, between Spandau and Potsdam, that was under the political control of West Berlin.
The Bungsberg telecommunications tower (also known as the Fernmeldeturm Schönwalde) is a 179-metre-high telecommunications tower situated on the Bungsberg, a hill which (at 168 metres above mean sea level) is the highest point in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
The municipality was established in 2004 by merger of the nine villages Basdorf, Klosterfelde, Lanke, Prenden, Schönerlinde, Schönwalde, Stolzenhagen, Wandlitz and Zerpenschleuse.