Die Soldaten (The Soldiers) is a four act opera in German by German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, based on the 1776 play by Jakob Michael Reinholdenz. Written and revised in phases between 1957 and 1964, it  premiered in 1965 and was dedicated to Hans Rosbaud. Zimmermann himself faithfully adapted the play into the libretto, the only changes to the text being repeats and small cuts. It is the composer's only completed opera and is considered an important work of the second half of the 20th century.

Even today a stage performance of Die Soldaten places is extremely challenging.In addition to the 16 singing and 10 speaking roles, it requires an 100 piece orchestra involving many unusual instruments and pieces of percussion. With its open action, a large amount of scenes which at times overlap one another or run simultaneously (the second scene of act 2, for example, or all of act 4), its multimedia structure incorporating film screens, projectors, tape recordings and loudspeakers, in addition to the sound effects of marching engines and screams, Die Soldaten an opera composed using the strict rules of twelve-tone music and presenting a high degree of  complexity despite its careful design for the stage, is a uniquely complicated opera, both to stage and to watch.