In 1809 a professional theatre company was established, with its own building in Tallinn, the Tallinna saksa teater.
The Vanemuine society's staging of Lydia Koidula's The Cousin from Saaremaa in 1870 marks the beginning of theatrical drama in the Estonian language.
In 1906 a new building was erected for the society and the theatre company turned professional under the directorship of Karl Menning.
Plays by Western writers such as Henrik Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, Russian Maksim Gorky and Estonian August Kitzberg, Oskar Luts and Eduard Vilde were staged.
Also in 1906 the Estonia Music and Theatre Society in Tallinn turned professional under the leadership of Theodor Altermann and Paul Pinna.