It is known that a 12th century Romanesque church in Wassenaar lies on the spot where the Northumbrian missionary Willibrord once landed in the Netherlands; the high dunes to the west were not formed until later.
Wassenaar long remained an unremarkable little town, known only as the home of the House of Wassenaer. It only began to gain notoriety in the 19th century when Louis Bonaparte ordered the construction of the Heerweg ("Army Road") between The Hague and Leiden, which forms the current Rijksstraatweg. In approximately 1840, Prince Frederik had the De Paauw (Peacock) palace built, where he lived for many years; it now serves as the city hall of Wassenaar.
With the construction of the railway between Rotterdam, The Hague though Wassenaar towards its final destination the coastal area of Scheveningen in 1907, the course of which now forms the Landscheidingsweg. Wassenaar became attractive as a residence for wealthy people from Rotterdam.
From September 1944 to March 1945 Wassenaar was one of launching sites used by the German Luftwaffe, commanded by SS General Hans Kammler for the V-2 rocketsdirected mainly towards London.
On one of the main routes to the Wassenaarseslag, the main beach for Wassenaarders, a World War II bunker can be found. For safety reasons and the instability of the structure, it was sealed off to prevent entrance.
The American World War II and Korean War general Haywood Hansell, who helped plan the Allied bombing offensive against both Germany and Japan, lived in Wassenaar in retirement from 1957 to 1966.
The Wassenaar Arrangement, a post Cold War era arms control convention, was signed here by forty member nations in May 1999
