 The first presentation in West Germany was in October 1962 at the Internationale Filmwoche Mannheim.It began in other cinemas there on 12 March 1965, and was recommended in June 1965 by the as best film of the month.The film was first aired by the Deutscher Fernsehfunk, the GDR television, on 27 March 1973.

 wrote in the daily paper "Neues Deutschland" that the film was a faithful reproduction of the staging which was then performed already 400 times at the theatre of the Berliner Ensemble.