In 1974 Brothers N. H. Knorr and F. W. Franz visited Spain together, and were due to address a large crowd of brothers in a Barcelona bullring. However, permission was not granted by the authorities, as the date coincided with the religious holiday of December 25. Swiftly, plans were changed and all the pioneers and elders were invited to a special meeting that had to be held some twenty-one kilometers (13 miles) from Barcelona in an unused industrial building that was under consideration for purchase as an assembly hall. Over 5,000 packed in to listen to Brother Knorr talk about the worldwide expansion of the work, and then paid rapt attention to Brother Franz’ exposition of Psalm 91.

Prior to that, in November 1975, an assembly hall was inaugurated in Madrid by F. W. Franz, in what had formerly been a cinema.