Waren

Waren stands at the northern end of Lake Müritz. Settlers from Westphalia founded the medieval town around 1260 near a Slavic village and castle, on the road from Stargard to Wismar. The old town grew around Saint George's Church; a new town arose around Saint Mary's and joined it in 1325. Waren received fishing rights on the lake in 1306 and was a residence of a branch of the lords of Werle from 1347 to 1425.

The Thirty Years' War and repeated fires devastated Waren, including major blazes in 1568, 1637 and 1699. A new town hall was built on the market between 1791 and 1797. Work to make the Elde navigable at the turn of the nineteenth century and again in the 1830s improved the town's connections with the waterways of Mecklenburg.