The two major cities would be connected by a faster service than could be provided by stagecoach over a distance that in 1835 was measured as 17 Poststunden (“post hours”, which were each half a Bavarian mile, that is about 3,707 metres (12,162 ft)), equivalent to about 63 kilometres (39 mi).

[13] Joseph Pertsch preferred a location on today's Sonnenstraße, while Ulrich Himbsel favoured a station at Spatzenstraße.

[20] The building was built of red and yellow brick in the Rundbogenstil with Romanesque revival and Italian Renaissance forms; sand and limestone were also used for individual components.

So from 1877 to 1883 under the leadership of Carl Schnorr von Carlsfeld, Jacob Graff and Heinrich Gerber, a new concourse was built with 16 tracks.

[20] Carl Schnorr von Carlsfeld was responsible for the redesign of the tracks, Jacob Graff was the site manager of the building and Heinrich Gerber was in charge of the construction.

Alkers presented his plans but his client was not satisfied, as the station building would not look impressive at the end of the 120-metre (390 ft) wide boulevard.

[32] In May 1942, Deutsche Reichsbahn began on Hitler's instruction to develop plans for his Breitspurbahn extreme broad-gauge railway concept, that would connect the whole of Europe.

[35] During World War II the station suffered heavy damage from Allied [36] bombing, but train services resumed after each air raid.

[15] The construction of the hall in the main station building, based on plans by Franz Hart, was completed on 1 August 1960.

[26] In the following years, postal operations, which included the station's own underground post office railway, had growing problem due to the interference of passengers.

On 18 August 1969, a separate package handling facility was brought into operation at Wilhelm-Hale-Straße, which was connected with the station by a double-track line.

In the 1980s, the entrance building was converted under the leadership of Ekkehard Fahr, Dieter Schaich and Josef Reindl into a circulating hall with a travel centre in order to create a transparent and open environment.

In the timetable of the summer of 1989, the station was the twelfth largest node in the network of Deutsche Bundesbahn, with 269 arrivals and departures by scheduled long-distance services per day.

[15] A washing plant was established to the south of the tracks for Intercity-Express trains in 1991 and in the following years it was expanded into an ICE depot.

From 2013 to 2015, the mezzanine level linking the Hauptbahnhof to the current S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations and pedestrian pathways to the streets and aboveground tram platforms was extensively renovated to give the bright and airy feeling, to comply with new EU regulations on fire protection measures and escape routes, and to increase the number of stores and restaurants.

[46] The current layout has all platforms connecting to the main concourse in the east, making the transfers from one train to other lengthy and inconvenient.

The new single building utilises a modern and more unified design surrounding the central platform hall along with a new aboveground pedestrian zone in the east towards Karlsplatz (Stachus).

A new 75-metre (246 ft) office tower will be built at the northwestern corner of the area to be used for a branch of Deutsche Bahn's administration department.

On 24 October 2018, the reconstruction project was officially launched with the removal of large clock on the eastern main façade, which will be transferred to the new building as a link to the past.

[49] Shortly after the launch, the eastern entrance hall and middle part of the large building were demolished for the construction of second S-Bahn and third U-Bahn stations.

The two outlying parts of the station have shorter tracks than the main hall, which means passengers always have to walk down most of the length of either platform 11 or 26 when changing from there.

On the ground floor are shops where travelers can eat and buy clothes and items for daily household needs.

Additional ICE services using mainly ordinary lines on their run exist to Vienna and a number of other cities.

There are also numerous InterCity and EuroCity services to most parts of Germany as well as neighbouring Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, France, and Italy.

The station used to have a number of DB NachtZug and CityNightLine services to northern Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Italy, but these were suspended in 2016.

Currently, night services operated by other railway companies, particularly ÖBB are found at the station, for example to Rome, Budapest and Zagreb.

There are numerous RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn services to Landshut, Regensburg, Plattling, Passau, Kempten, Lindau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Nuremberg among others.

Since 1995, the Children and Youth Museum of the City of Munich (Kinder- und Jugendmuseum München) has been located in the Starnberg wing station.

At the southernmost platform 11 there is an office of the Bahnhofsmission charity, which provides travellers and the homeless with around the clock assistance, food and rest facilities.

Many station buildings have also been demolished in connection with the construction of the 'Second Cross City S-Bahn' tunnel to be completed in the period 2028/2032.