Today, it is a small town compared to nearby Berlin but was the original nucleus of the former realms of Brandenburg and Prussia.

Brenna, which had been a fort of the West Slavic tribe Stodoranie, was conquered in 929 after the Battle of Lenzen by the German King Henry the Fowler of Saxony.

In Slavic revolt of 983 there was a major Slav uprising involving numerous tribes and until the middle of the 12th century the area east of the Elbe remained under their control.

By 1160 systematic settlement of the Elbe-Havel-Spree basin by nobility, burghers, and peasants from the Schwabengau area (Harz), the Netherlands, the Rhineland, and Westphalia was in progress.

In the late 19th century Brandenburg an der Havel became a very important industrial center in the German Empire.

Steel industries settled there, and several bicycle brands such as Brennabor, Corona and Excelsior were manufactured in the city.

A giant industrial complex, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Railways) was located in Brandenburg-Kirchmöser between the two world wars and under the former GDR.

Later the old gaol became the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre where the Nazis murdered people with mental diseases, including children.

This programme later came to be known as "Action T4" because of the Berlin address, Tiergartenstraße 4, the headquarters of this planned and well-organized forced euthanasia organisation.

The centrepiece of the city's urban public transport system is the Brandenburg an der Havel tramway network.

The Katharinenkirche (St. Catherine's Church) built in 1401 in the Neustadt is an impressive example of northern German brick Gothic architecture.

The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows: Brandenburg an der Havel is twinned with:[10]