 Hoping that "The Marriage of Maria Braun" might be successful at the 1979 Berlin International Film Festival Eckelkamp started a marketing campaign and decided to release the film theatrically in March 1979.Commissioned by Eckelkamp, the author Gerhard Zwerenz novelized the film.It was published in several weekly installments in the magazine "Der Stern" from March over a period of three months, thus increasing public interest in the film.