diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index ccbccc3dc62..a1bba89215a 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.2.0
+2.2.0-rc1
diff --git a/doc/manual/manual.tex b/doc/manual/manual.tex
index 94dcf44e384..69060dc8ca7 100644
--- a/doc/manual/manual.tex
+++ b/doc/manual/manual.tex
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@
 \hfill{\Huge \fontfamily{\sfdefault}\selectfont User Manual \\
 \raggedleft \huge \fontfamily{\sfdefault}\selectfont Version
 % keep the following line as is so that we can replace this using a script:
-2.2.0 %VERSION-INFO%
+2.2.0-rc1 %VERSION-INFO%
 \\\large(generated \today)\\
 {\Large Wolfgang Bangerth\\Juliane Dannberg\\Rene Gassm{\"o}ller\\Timo Heister\\}
 }