The Thalia Theater in the German city of Hamburg is home to one of Germany's most famous theatre ensembles. Housed in a neoclassical building dating from 1912, the theatre is one of Germany's largest drama venues, with a seating capacity of approximately 1,000. In the city's borough of Altona the theatre operates a smaller stage, with approximately 200 seats. This theatre, called Thalia in der Gaußstraße, is considered an important stage for contemporary theatre. 

In the nineteenth century, the Thalia Theater was the most important drama theatre in Hamburg. After having been nationalised In 1937, the Thalia Theater pursued a national-socialist agenda. Largely destroyed by bombings in 1945, the theatre re-opened a year later and was completely restored in 1950. In the 1970's, under the direction of Boy Gobert, the Thalia Theater was renowned for staging significant contemporary director's theatre, producing directors such as Peter Zadek and Jürgen Flimm. In 1985, Flimm returned to become artistic director for the next fifteen years, building Thalia into a successful theatre attracting a wide audience. Since 2009, the theatre has been led by artistic director Joachim Lux. 

Voted Theatre of the Year by the German-speaking magazine Theater Heute in 2003 and 2007, the Thalia Theater's ensemble is one of the most popular in Germany. Many great directors have worked with the ensemble in recent years, including Martin Kusej, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, Luk Perceval and Dimiter Gotscheff. The ensemble stages classic plays as well as contemporary theatre, including works by Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek and Jon Fosse. The company have been invited to perform in cities worldwide, including in New York, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. They have also performed at major international festivals, including the Wiener Festwochen, the Theatertreffen in Berlin, the Budapest Drama Festival and the Avignon Theatre Festival.