It is in the Essen district of Stadtwald in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia.

Another station called Rellinghausen was opened in 1879 further east on the Mülheim-Heißen–Altendorf (Ruhr) railway (on which passenger services were abandoned in 1965 and the line was subsequently closed).

As a result, the station received its current name of Essen Stadtwald on 1 January 1911.

[1] The two platforms are connected by a pedestrian overpass to the station building, which was built postwar and is located to the east of the tracks.

Heading towards the south, the line runs through the 248 metre-long,[6] single-track tunnel under Stadtwaldplatz.