Frederick the Great commissioned the opera house from Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, and it stands on Unter den Linden as part of the Forum Fridericianum. Construction began in July 1741, and the house was inaugurated on December 7, 1742, although it was not entirely finished. The article calls the style Palladian, an early example of the Palladian revival in Germany, with north and west facades copied from Colen Campbell's elevations.
A fire destroyed it on August 18, 1843, and Carl Ferdinand Langhans supervised the rebuild. Raids in 1941 and 1945 destroyed the interior and most of the structure; bombs on February 3, 1945 left only the main facade. It was rebuilt from 1951 to 1955 in freely adapted Baroque forms.
HG Merz led a renovation from 2009 that raised the roof and extended the proscenium for acoustics. It reopened in 2017 with 1,350 seats.
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