Based on a design by architect Carl Moritz,[2] a neo-baroque building with restaurant and garden terrace was built.

Acting director Gustav Hartung engaged well-known Berlin actors such as Heinrich George to the theatre in the 1920s, which made the house known nationwide.

At the time of the Nazi rule, the National Socialist opera director Alexander Spring was the general manager of the Kölner Bühnen and head of the Schauspielhaus.

In 1957, the stages moved from their makeshift venue in the auditorium to a newly built so-called multi-storey building on Offenbachplatz [de], where opera and operetta, ballet and drama were performed.

In 1962, the new Schauspielhaus, designed by Wilhelm Riphahn, was completed and opened with Schiller's Die Räuber in the staging of the later director Oscar Fritz Schuh with actor Klausjürgen Wussow as Karl Moor.

He also began a close collaboration with classical philologist Wolfgang Schadewaldt, whose translations of Greek dramas he brought to the stage in Cologne.

On 11 January 2013, Beier left before her move to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus,[5] with her last production of an antique drama, The Trojan Women by Euripides.

Contents in front of the facade "preserved the listed building and carried out a referendum, which was approved in April 2010 by the city council of Cologne.

In June 2012, EXPO XXI was put into operation in the Agnesviertel on the Gladbacher Wall as an interim play stage during the renovation work.