Imperial Theater, Crime theater in St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany.

The Imperial Theater is a theatre with around 270 seats in a former cinema on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg's St. Pauli district. Since 15 March 2003 its programme has focused on crime plays, and it calls itself "Hamburg's crime theatre". Its stage adaptations of Edgar Wallace novels, among them "Das indische Tuch" (2004) and "Der Hexer" (2005), became audience favourites.

The building opened in 1956 as a non-stop newsreel cinema and became the Imperial in 1957. From 1963 it ran as the 360-degree Cinemarium, then served as a sex cinema and later the PAM-Kino before closing in 1993. Frank Thannhäuser reopened it as a theater on 19 August 1994; since 15 March 2003 the program has focused on crime plays, marketed as "Hamburgs Krimitheater".

Since 15 March 2003 the Imperial has billed itself as "Hamburg's crime theatre", staging adaptations of Edgar Wallace novels such as "Das indische Tuch" (2004) and "Der unheimliche Mönch" (2011), alongside Agatha Christie's "Die Mausefalle" and Hitchcock's "Bei Anruf Mord". From 2008 a second venue, the Krimi-Salon in the Maritim Hotel Reichshof, seated diners inside the action during a menu sequence. The annual Reeperbahn Festival brings national and international musicians to the house.

The auditorium holds around 270 seats, so booking ahead is advisable for the Edgar Wallace crime adaptations. The venue sits on the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli; a move to Reeperbahn 35, about 150 metres away, was announced in 2025. Check the current schedule before travelling, as the programme changes.

The theater is one of the very few venues in Germany dedicated almost entirely to staging Edgar Wallace adaptations. Wallace, a British author, became a cultural phenomenon in Germany largely through a long-running series of film adaptations made in the 1960s.