The movie premiered in Germany in March 1991, a month before Max Frisch, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based on, die in in April 1991. The premiere in his home country Switzerland was in May 1991, a month after his death.
The writer Max Frisch gave director Volker Schlöndorff his limousine, a Jaguar 420, shortly before he died on the 4th April 1991.