The new Königliches Schauspielhaus was inaugurated on 18 June 1821 with the acclaimed premiere of Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz.

During the 1848 Revolution its main auditorium housed the Prussian National Assembly for several weeks in September, with the Gendarmenmarkt a major arena of political events.

Notable premieres during this period included Penthesilea by Heinrich von Kleist in 1876, and The Assumption of Hannele by Gerhart Hauptmann in 1893.

Under the direction of noted German Expressionist producer and director Leopold Jessner, it soon became one of the leading theaters of the Weimar Republic, a tradition ambivalently continued by his successor Gustaf Gründgens after the Nazi takeover in 1933.

The exterior, including many of the sculptures of composers by Christian Friedrich Tieck and Balthasar Jacob Rathgeber, is a faithful reconstruction of Schinkel's designs, while the interior was adapted in a Neoclassical style meeting the conditions of the altered use.