The station was built as part of the construction of the Hinterland Railway and still plays a central role in public transport of Sonneberg and the surrounding area.

Sonneberg Hauptbahnhof is at the 19.51 km mark of the Coburg–Sonneberg line at a height of 386.41 metres above sea level and is located south of the town centre.

The German Wehrmacht blew up the signal boxes and an air strike by U.S. fighter-bombers destroyed the storage shed and 70% of the track and points.

After the occupation by Thuringia by Soviet troops in July 1945, operations were suspended on the main lines to Coburg and Stockheim.

The goods yard precinct was still the most extensive in South Thuringia, although rail traffic only ran on the two branch lines to Probstzella and Eisfeld and the freight marshalling could be handled in Rauenstein or Lauscha.

However, in 1937 there was an express train that took about three hours and ten minutes to run the 142 km from Coburg via Sonneberg, Stockheim and Göschwitz to Weimar.