Brother Knorr arrived in Wiesbaden at the end of November 1956 on a flying visit of less than twenty-four hours. The reason? He himself explains in his published report in the English Watchtower of May 1, 1957. “Here too the purpose of the visit was to work on the expansion problem. Our Bethel home and present factory are too small and we called in an architect, a brother. With him we worked all day in designing a larger factory and Bethel home. The Society was able to purchase some property from the city of Wiesbaden, and after considerable discussion the city authorities consented to our changing the location of a street, thus making it possible for us to put our new structure right up against our present one, relocating the street beyond our new building. . . . The building will be sufficiently large to take in some new presses, now being built, its high ceiling giving us plenty of headroom.”

In 1968 Brother Knorr visited Wiesbaden twice. His first visit was in June, and, to the joy of the family, he announced that a new rotary press and three new machines for the bookbindery were being purchased for our factory. Shortly thereafter two of these machines were installed and put into operation. During his November visit Brother Knorr made extensive arrangements to increase the amount of work we were doing in the factory. The brothers began to work in two shifts, some fifteen to twenty working at night. Brother Knorr had called to our attention the importance of keeping up spirituality, so a special congregation was formed for the benefit of the brothers on the night shift, who otherwise could not have attended the meetings.

Despite this construction work the Bethel home was still too small. In May of 1970 Brother Knorr and Brother Larson, the factory overseer in Brooklyn, visited us for about a week. While checking through the home and factory Brother Knorr decided that it would be in the best interests of the work to enlarge.