As such, it is featured as a settlement of the Rugii in the historical strategy game Total War: Rome II (as Virunium).

The medieval town was founded around 1260 on the trade route from Stargard Land to Wismar near a castle and a Slavic village by settlers from Westphalia.

The canalisation of the River Elde (1798–1803 and 1831–1837) and the construction of the Bolter Canal (1831–1837) resulted in an economic boom in the town.

In 1920 the cavalry captain, Rittmeister Stephan von le Fort (1884–1953) from Gut Boek, gathered a group of Freikorps fighters around him and imposed a state of siege on the town of Waren during the Kapp Putsch on 17 March 1920.

On 18 March, he and his cousin, Reichswehr lieutenant Peter Alexander von le Fort, gave orders for a cannon and three machine guns to open fire on the town from Gallows Hill (Galgenberg), resulting in five deaths and eleven seriously wounded.

After the putsch was suppressed, both men fled to Munich and Austria and the family seat was seized by the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

In the same year Waren Harbour reached its economic peak – 188 ships arrived and 208 departed handling a total of 22,330 tonnes of goods.

In 1927 the following big firms were operating in the town: the Naschkatze dairy, the Piechatzek engineering works and iron foundry (today Mecklenburger Metallguss), the Steinborn steam-powered sawmill and the Thiele und Buggisch mill.

There was also a milk exporting concern, Natura, a potato factory, the Strubelt steam-powered sawmill, a gas works and a fish-processing plant.

There were 14 construction businesses, a roofing felt company, five mills, two cement factories and the Rosengarten Fishery.

Several thousand POWs, as well as men and women from the countries occupied by Germany, were used as forced labourers there, working sometimes in inhumane conditions.

In Warenshof, a naval base (Marinenlager) was established as hutted camp for training the intelligence service of the Navy.

The facilities of the "Memefa" and the steam mill and Thiele Buggisch were dismantled as war reparations and sent to the Soviet Union.

The Rostock to Neustrelitz railway and the sections of line from Malchow to Karow and Möllenhagen to Neubrandenburg were closed and the track removed.

This devastation resulted in a raising of awareness in Waren among many of the residents, especially for the preservation of the remaining, often centuries-old buildings of the Old Town.

During the Cold War, Waren was home to one of the four central nuclear missile depots of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

On the Damerower Werder, which belongs to the parish of Jabel, there is an enclosure of European Bison which is open to visitors.

In the historic town centre of Waren (Müritz) are many restaurants, cafés, bars and several shopping streets.

At the same time the Müritzeum acts as an information- and nature experience centre for the Mecklenburg Lake District as a whole.

St. George's Church dates to the early 14th century and is a three-aisled basilica with a four-bayed nave, that is covered by a cross-ribbed vaulted ceiling.

[8] Waren (Müritz) station offers fast rail connections to Rostock at the Baltic Sea, Berlin, Leipzig and Munich.