On the German side, it was planned to extend the line from Freiburg through the Höllental through the Black Forest towards Ulm and Lake Constance.

The concept of the Colmar–Freiburg railway forming part of an international long-distance connection from Paris to Vienna through the Vosges and the Black Forest was never carried out.

One reason for the construction of the railway was the transport of wood from the Black Forest to the Rhine and coal from the Saarland to Freiburg.

[4] In order to finance railway construction Freiburg and Breisach took a loan of 1.2 million Goldmarks at 4.5 % from the Basler Bankierverein (Basel banking association).

The opening of the line was delayed to 14 September 1871 as a result of personnel and material bottlenecks caused by the Franco-Prussian War.

After the signing of a state treaty between the Grand Duchy of Baden and the German Empire in 1874, which set out responsibilities in the extension of the line, construction began in 1875 on the Rhine bridge near Breisach, which was opened to traffic on 5 January 1878.

[10] In the Second World War, the Rhine bridge at Breisach was blown up for the first time in 1939, repaired and then completely destroyed during the German retreat in 1945.

The French railway company, SNCF, operated passenger services between Colmar and Volgelsheim after the Second World War, but closed them in 1969.

[11] In 1982, the Chemin de Fer Touristique du Rhin was founded, which operates a heritage railway service on the French part of the line.

On 1 June 1997, the management of the Freiburg–Breisach railway was taken over by the Breisgau-S-Bahn, which was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of both the Südwestdeutsche Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (SWEG) and the Freiburger Verkehrs AG (VAG), each holding 50%.

The station, which was opened in 2000,[17] was built on the location of Heidenhof junction where one of two curves connected to the Freiburg freight bypass until 1945.

The line between Freiburg and Gottenheim was electrified from 1 February to the end of November 2019 as part of the Breisgau-S-Bahn 2020 project and went into operation on 15 December 2019.

[18][19] Mechanical signal boxes of the Einheit class were operated in Gottenheim until January 2019 and in Breisach until December 2019.

Due to problems in Gottenheim the point of separation was changed to Endingen a. K. In addition, there is only an hourly train between Titisee and Seebrugg on Sundays.