In October 2013, the theatre was included as endangered in the Rote Liste Kultur [de] of the Deutscher Kulturrat.

As Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau had the theatre closed in 1810 for financial reasons as a result of the events of the war, the amateur project Societätstheater [de] once again gained importance for a short time.

After three years of construction, the present building was completed in 1938 as the largest stage north of the Alps at the time, with 1250 seats.

The opening with Weber's Der Freischütz took place in the presence of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels on 29 May 1938.

After the almost complete destruction during one of the heavy air raids on Dessau [de] on 30 May 1944, the theatre was reopened in 1949 after reconstruction with Mozart's The Magic Flute under the directorship of Willy Bodenstein (artistic director from 1949 to 1968).