[1] Cottbus station entered into operation on 13 September 1866 with the opening of the railway line from Berlin.

In 1886, the station's new owners, the Prussian state railways, built a tunnel to connect the platforms.

In 1899, the Spreewald Railway was opened with its terminus on the edge of the track field north of the state station.

These included the duplication of several lines in the Cottbus area, in order to relieve the junction.

At the end of November 2010, a new electronic interlocking system was put into operation at a cost of €50 million.

[6] In July 2012, representatives of the German and Polish transport ministries agreed to electrify the line from Cottbus to Wrocław (Cottbus-Forst railway).

The plan was to run six Eurocity trains a day between Berlin and southern Poland, via Cottbus and Wrocław, once the construction work had been completed.

In 2020, it was decided that the electrification to Forst and the expansion from the current 120 km/h to 160 km/h would now be realized via the federal government's coal phase-out package of measures.

To get from the station building to the northernmost platform or the northern entrance, it is necessary to change tunnels.

In front of its exit is the Spreewaldbahnhof, the starting point of the disused narrow gauge Spreewald Railway.

These are for the most part no longer in operation, including the freight loading and unloading facilities and the container terminal.

The entrance building contains a ticket office, various dining facilities, a bookstore, and a shop selling local products.

This train was reinvented in December 2020 between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Krakow Główny, but as the train is running on the electrified and faster route via Frankfurt (Oder), it does not stop in Cottbus Hbf anymore.

[11] All tracks and platforms of the passenger station are to be rebuilt and the signalling system is to be modernised.

At the end of 2008, DB Netz was requested by the Federal Railway Authority to demolish large parts of the infrastructure of the former container terminal on the north side of the station.