The 1976 film "Heart of Glass", original title "Herz aus Glas", is set in a German town around 1800. The town's main industry is making red colored ruby glass objects. The company master dies and his production secrets are gone. The local baron and the townspeople start searching for the formulas and descend into madness. At one point some men cut up a woman's sofa. They return the sofa to her and pay her with ten silver Maria Theresa thalers. The Maria Theresa thaler is an Austrian coin first struck in 1780 and restruck ever since then.

Hyas, a local "seer" or psychic, watches the fog.

He makes ominous predictions about the town. The master of the local glass factory dies along with his secrets for manufacturing the famous "ruby glass". Without the secret formula the glass factory will die along with the town. Baron Huttenbesitzer owns the factory.

The townspeople begin searching for the secret formulas. At one point they find a woman's couch.

The baron wonders if the formula is hidden in the sofa.

The baron cuts open the couch but finds nothing. Hyas, who lives in the forest, has a reason for coming into town.

The baron pays the couch's owner for the damage.

Silver dollar size coins lay on a cloth.

The coins are modern Maria Theresa Thalers

Silver, 41 mm, 28.07 gm

The Maria Theresa thaler, a popular silver dollar sized Austrian coin, was first struck in 1780, the year of her death and has been struck off and on all over the world by various mints since then.

Some glass workers attempt to make the "ruby glass". Hyas predicts that the glass factory will be destroyed andhe town residents begin going mad.

Josef Bierbichler as Hias
Stefan Guttler as Huttenbesitzer
Clemens Scheitz as Adalbert
Volker Prechtel as Wudy
Sonja Skiba as Ludmilla
Director: Werner Herzog
Writers: Werner Herzog, Herbert Achternbusch