Schönberg is the city seat of the Schönberger Land, a recently enlarged subnational administrative unit of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Schönberg is also close to the cities of Wismar and Schwerin and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region.

The first formal mention of the city of Schönberg came in the year 1219, and shortly after became the residence of the Bishopric of Ratzeburg.

Under the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) the school was reformed to hold grades 9-12 and was changed twice as the Erweiterte and Rudolf Hartmann Polytechnic Oberschules.

In 1991 with the fall of East Germany, it was changed again to Gymnasium Schönberg until 2001 when students voted it to its current name.