The company's history goes back to the
Deutsches Opernhaus built by the then independent city of Charlottenburg—the "richest town of
Prussia"—according to plans designed by
Heinrich Seeling from 1911. It opened on 7 November 1912 with a performance of
Beethoven's
Fidelio, conducted by
Ignatz Waghalter. In 1925, after the incorporation of Charlottenburg by the 1920
Greater Berlin Act, the name of the resident building was changed to
Städtische Oper (Municipal Opera). With the Nazi
seizure of power in 1933, the opera was under control of the Reich
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Minister
Joseph Goebbels had the name changed back to
Deutsches Opernhaus, competing with the
Berlin State Opera in
Mitte controlled by his rival, the
Prussian minister-president
Hermann Göring. In 1935, the building was remodeled by
Paul Baumgarten and the seating reduced from 2,300 to 2,098 places.
Carl Ebert, the pre-World War II general manager, chose to emigrate from Germany rather than endorse the Nazi view of music, and went on to co-found the
Glyndebourne Festival Opera in England. He was replaced by
Max von Schillings, who acceded to demands that he enact works of "unalloyed German character". Several artists, like the conductor
Fritz Stiedry and the singer
Alexander Kipnis, followed Ebert into emigration. The opera house was destroyed by a
Royal Air Force air raid on 23 November 1943. Performances continued at the
Admiralspalast in Mitte until 1945. Ebert returned to serve as general manager after the war. After the war, in what had now been called
West Berlin, the company, again called
Städtische Oper, used the nearby
Theater des Westens; its opening production was
Fidelio, on 4 September 1945. Its home was finally rebuilt in 1961 but to a much-changed, sober design by
Fritz Bornemann. The opening production of the newly renamed
Deutsche Oper, on 24 September, was Mozart's
Don Giovanni. On the evening of 2 June 1967,
Benno Ohnesorg, a student taking part in the
German student movement, was shot in the streets around the opera house. He had been protesting against the visit to Germany by the
Shah of Iran, who was attending a performance of Mozart's
The Magic Flute. Past
Generalmusikdirektoren (GMD, general music directors) have included
Bruno Walter,
Kurt Adler,
Ferenc Fricsay,
Lorin Maazel,
Gerd Albrecht,
Jesús López-Cobos,
Giuseppe Sinopoli, and
Christian Thielemann. In April 2001, Sinopoli died at the podium while conducting
Aida, at age 54. In October 2005,
Renato Palumbo was appointed GMD as of the 2006–2007 season. In October 2007, the Deutsche Oper announced the appointment of
Donald Runnicles as their next
Generalmusikdirektor, effective August 2009, for an initial contract of five years. Simultaneously, Palumbo and the Deutsche Oper mutually agreed to terminate his contract, effective November 2007. In November 2020, the company announced the most recent extension of Runnicles' contract as its GMD, through 2027. In September 2023, the Deutsche Oper Berlin announced that Runnicles is to stand down as its GMD at the close of the 2025-2026 season, one season earlier than his most recent contract extension, at Runnicles' own request. The most recent
Intendant (artistic director) of the company was Dietmar Schwarz, through 31 July 2025. In September 2025, the company announced the appointments of
Maxime Pascal and Michele Spotti as co-principal guest conductors, and Titus Engel as 'conductor-in-residence', all effective in the summer of 2026. ==Idomeneo controversy==