Fürstenberg includes nine areas, named for former villages that are now mostly farmland or little more than a church: North from the center of the city is Fürstenberg Palace, which was built between 1741 and 1752 by the architect Christoph Julius Löwe for Dorothea Sophie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of Adolphus Frederick III, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

In 1758, the Battle of Tornow was fought near the town between the forces of Prussia and Sweden during the Seven Years' War.

In early 1959, three years before the Cuban Missile Crisis, the site was equipped with six R-5 Pobeda nuclear missiles, capable of launching from a mobile launcher from one of four tennis-court-sized sites capable of handling the larger R-12 Dvina.

[4] After the withdrawal of the missiles in September 1959, the site returned to its original purpose as an army base.

The railway station is called Fürstenberg (Havel) and is serviced by DB Regio Nordost.