In 1892, the first private theater opened in Wiesbaden in a rear building in Bahnhofstraße. With operettas, comedies and farces, it catered to the tastes of the audience and saw itself as a simpler addition to the court theater. In 1895, Hermann Rauch took over the management and continued to run it as the "Residenztheater". He turned the "operetta theater" into an "artistic institution" with plays of contemporary drama. Here, audiences were offered dramas that were not suitable for court theater until 1918, e.g. by Ibsen, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Strindberg or Wedekind. Rauch thus helped the "modernists" to achieve a breakthrough and success in Wiesbaden. On 01.09.1910, Rauch opened his own house for the Residenztheater on the former barracks site between Luisenstraße and Schwalbacher Straße. Today, the Luisenforum stands here.

At times there was a premiere every Saturday. Broad sections of the Wiesbaden audience accepted the addition to theater life. The Residenztheater thus gained an important role in the cultural life of the city. Famous actors such as Adele Sandrock, Sarah Bernhardt, Heinrich George and Hans Albers appeared on the stage.

As a result of the First World War, the audience dwindled and the financial burden became insurmountable. Theater director Rauch gave up and sold the theater. The theater degenerated into an amusement enterprise. In 1922, the director Carl Hagemann, who wanted a stage for spoken theater in addition to the "Großes Haus", incorporated the Residenztheater into the Staatstheater as the "Kleines Haus". The first performance took place on February 4th of the same year. The repertoire concentrated on contemporary drama, interrupted now and then by operas or operettas. In 1934-43, a private management took over the theater again. From 01.09.1943, the theater was again affiliated to the then "Deutsches Theater" as a second stage. During the air raid on the night of February 3, 1945, bombs destroyed the stage in the former Residenztheater.

After the Second World War, the former theater became the "Residenz" cinema.