Expansion
After the temple's dedication, the grounds—nicknamed "Temple Square"—became a popular site for local non-LDS newlyweds' wedding photos. Latter-day Saints popularly attribute a hastened fall of the communist regime, and the Freiberg area's prosperity in relatively poor eastern Germany, to the temple's presence and influence on the country. After the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, the Freiberg and Frankfurt temples made it the second country, after Canada, outside of the United States to have more than one.
The temple received badly needed air conditioning in 1994. Renovations began in 2001 which nearly doubled the square footage to 14,125 square feet (1,312.3 m2) and added 12 oxen to support the baptismal font, a waiting room for those not able to enter the temple, a matron and brides room, as well as an office for the temple president. On December 20, 2001 an angel Moroni statue was placed on top of the temple. A second open house was held August 17-31, 2002. After renovations, Gordon B. Hinckley rededicated the temple on September 7, 2002. Although when dedicated the temple was originally open only to East German church members, it now also serves those in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and, before the Kyiv Ukraine Temple's 2010 dedication, Russia and Ukraine.
Read more about this topic: Freiberg Germany Temple
Famous quotes containing the word expansion:
“We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The fundamental steps of expansion that will open a person, over time, to the full flowering of his or her individuality are the same for both genders. But men and women are rarely in the same place struggling with the same questions at the same age.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)
“Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.”
—W. Winwood Reade (1838–1875)