Master of the World (1934 film)
1934 film by Harry Piel
The Master of the World (German: Der Herr der Welt) is a German science fiction film first released in 1934. Directed by Harry Piel, the story features a villain who is trying to conquer the world using "Überrobots". The film was released in the U.S. in 1935.
Its themes are the ethical replacement of human labor by robots, and the threat to humanity by robots used as war machines.
Synopsis
Machine manufacturer Dr Erich Heller is a humanist visionary who hopes that the mechanisation of the world of work will lead to an all-round improvement in living conditions for the working man. He wants his ‘machine men’, his robots, to be used particularly in the mines, where miners often carry out highly dangerous and physically demanding work. Heller mistakenly considers his most capable scientist, Professor Wolf, the most important supporter of his vision of a ‘better working world’. Unbeknownst to him, Wolf has long been pursuing his own agenda. He wants to achieve world domination by creating a ‘super robot’, a deadly, invincible ‘fighting machine’.
On a business trip, Heller inspires fellow traveller Werner Baumann, a mining engineer, with his vision of man and machine merging into a single entity to the benefit of mankind.
“Master of the World (1934 film)” enters the record as 1934 film by Harry Piel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Master, World and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6785332. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934 and 1935.
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This entry incorporates text from “Master of the World (1934 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.