Bernhard Sehring designed the present Theater des Westens in Charlottenburg. The theater was founded in 1895 for plays, construction began in 1896, and it opened on October 1, 1896, with Holger Drachmann's Tausendundeine Nacht. Opera began there in 1898 and operetta in 1908. The article records a capacity of 1,712.
Enrico Caruso made his first Berlin appearance there in 1905. It closed in 1944 after an air raid and reopened in 1945 as the Städtische Oper. In 1961 the opera moved to a new building, and the theater opened with My Fair Lady, becoming the first theater in Germany to show musicals.
The city sold the theater's operation to Stage Entertainment in 2002, while the building stayed city property. It reopened on September 26, 2003, with Les Misérables.
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