It was opened on 1 June 1850 and served as a port station for the train ferry over Lake Constance to Romanshorn until 1976 and is still used for passenger services by Deutsche Bahn and Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn (BOB).

A train ferry service was established to the east of the port station in 1869 to connect with the railway from Romanshorn to Zürich, which was opened in 1855.

A new building with a half-timbered facade and bay windows facing the lake was built in place of the first simple station in 1885/86.

After Friedrichshafen had increasingly lost its importance as a railway location after the Second World War, the rail ferry service to Romanshorn was closed in 1976.

The track and ancillary equipment lying to the east of the entrance building that had served the ferry has been removed in the subsequent years.