At the time of the GDR, this was the number one selling film of the ministry for foreign trade, attracting close to 13 million viewers between 1953 and 1990.
Director Wolfgang Staudte was scheduled to direct the film Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, but due to an incomplete script and disagreements with Bertolt Brecht (the author of the play) the project was laid off. To Staudte, Little Mook was, at first, little more than an interim solution.