Schorfheide further comprises the villages of Altenhof, Böhmerheide, Eichhorst, Klandorf, Lichterfelde, Schluft and Werbellin.

It is situated immediately west of the district's capital Eberswalde and about 40 km (25 mi) northeast of the Berlin city centre.

In the 13th century the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg built a castle at the southern end of the Werbellinsee.

Groß Schönebeck houses a hunting lodge erected from 1680 at the behest of the Brandenburg Elector Frederick William I of Hohenzollern, now a museum.

From 1950 until 1989 Altenhof was the site of the Pionierrepublik Wilhelm Pieck, a large camp of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation.