diff --git a/scripts/release.pl b/scripts/release.pl
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..a0f0035678f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/release.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+# creates a new release
+
+# Copyright (C) 2014 Jürgen E. Fischer <jef@norbit.de>
+
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use Getopt::Long;
+use Pod::Usage;
+
+my $newmajor;
+my $newminor;
+my $releasename;
+my $help;
+
+my $result = GetOptions(
+		"major" => \$newmajor,
+		"minor" => \$newminor,
+		"releasename=s" => \$releasename,
+		"help" => \$help
+	);
+
+$releasename = shift @ARGV;
+
+pod2usage(1) if $help or !defined $releasename;
+
+my $major;
+my $minor;
+open F, "CMakeLists.txt";
+while(<F>) {
+        if(/SET\(CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR "(\d+)"\)/) {
+                $major = $1;
+        } elsif(/SET\(CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR "(\d+)"\)/) {
+                $minor = $1;
+        }
+}
+close F;
+
+if( defined $newmajor ) {
+	die "New major must be equal or greater than old major $major" if $newmajor <= $major;
+	$newminor = 0 unless defined $newminor;
+} else {
+	$newmajor = $major;
+}
+
+if( defined $newminor ) {
+	die "New minor must be greater than current minor $minor" if $newmajor==$major && $newminor<=$minor;
+} else {
+	$newminor = $minor + 1;
+}
+
+sub updateCMakeLists {
+	my($major,$minor,$release) = @_;
+
+	rename "CMakeLists.txt", "CMakeLists.txt.orig" or die "cannot rename CMakeLists.txt: $!";
+	open I, "CMakeLists.txt.orig";
+	open O, ">CMakeLists.txt" or die "cannot create CMakeLists.txt: $!";
+	while(<I>) {
+		s/SET\(CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR "(\d+)"\)/SET(CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR "$major")/;
+		s/SET\(CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR "(\d+)"\)/SET(CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR "$minor")/;
+		s/SET\(RELEASE_NAME "(.+)"\)/SET(RELEASE_NAME "$release")/;
+		print O;
+	}
+	close O;
+	close I;
+}
+
+print "Last pull rebase...\n";
+system("git pull --rebase") == 0 or die "git pull rebase failed";
+
+my $release = "$newmajor.$newminor";
+my $relbranch = "release-${newmajor}_${newminor}";
+
+print "Creating branch...\n";
+system("git checkout -b $relbranch" ) == 0 or die "git checkout release branch failed";
+updateCMakeLists($newmajor,$newminor,$releasename);
+
+print "Updating branch...\n";
+system("dch -r ''" ) == 0 or die "dch failed";
+system( "dch --newversion $newmajor.$newminor.0 'Release of $release'" ) == 0 or die "dch failed";
+system( "cp debian/changelog /tmp" ) == 0 or die "backup changelog failed";
+system( "git commit -a -m 'Release of $release ($releasename)'" ) == 0 or die "release commit failed";
+
+print "Producing archive...\n";
+system( "git archive --format tar HEAD | bzip2 -c >qgis-$release.0.tar.bz2" ) == 0 or die "git archive failed";
+system( "md5sum qgis-$newmajor.$newminor.0.tar.bz2 >qgis-$release.0.tar.bz2.md5" ) == 0 or die "md5sum failed";
+
+$newminor++;
+
+print "Updating master...\n";
+system( "git checkout master" ) == 0 or die "checkout master failed";
+updateCMakeLists($newmajor,$newminor,"Master");
+system( "cp /tmp/changelog debian" ) == 0 or die "restore changelog failed";
+system("dch -r ''" ) == 0 or die "dch failed";
+system( "dch --newversion $newmajor.$newminor.0 'New development version $newmajor.$newminor after branch of $release'" ) == 0 or die "dch failed";
+system( "git commit -a -m 'Bump version to $newmajor.$newminor'" ) == 0 or die "bump version failed";
+
+print "Push dry-run...\n";
+system( "git push -n origin master $relbranch" ) == 0 or die "git push -n failed";
+
+print "Now manually push and upload the tarballs :\n\tgit push origin master $relbranch\n\trsync qgis-$release.0.tar.bz2* qgis.org:/var/www/downloads/\n\n";
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+release.pl - create a new release
+
+=head1 SYNOPSIS
+
+release.pl [options] releasename
+
+  Options:
+    -major=newmajor     new major number for release (defaults to current major version number)
+    -minor=newminor     new minor number for release (defaults to current minor + 1 or 0 when major version number was increased)
+			next master will become minor + 1
+=cut