Freiberg, Saxony

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Freiberg
Image:Stadtwappen Freiberg (Sachsen).png	Image:Freiberg Sachsen in Deutschland.png

Country	Germany
State	Saxony
Administrative region	Dresden
District	Freiberg
Population	43,394 (2005)
Area	48.05 km²
Population density	905 /km²
Elevation	400 m
Coordinates	50°55′ N 13°21′ E
Postal code	09599
Area code	03731
Licence plate code	FG
Mayor	Uta Rensch (SPD)
Website	freiberg.de

Freiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the district Freiberg. Population 43,394 (November 2005).

The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries. A symbol of this history is the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (famously known as Mining academy), established in 1765 and the oldest university of mining and metallurgy in the world. Freiberg also has a notable cathedral containing two famous Gottfried Silbermann organs. Furthermore there are two other organs made by Gottfried Silbermann. One at the Petrikirche and one at the Jacobikirche.

In 1944 the Flossenburg concentration camp oversaw a subcamp built outside the city of Freiberg. It housed over 500 female survivors of other camps, including Auschwitz Birkenau. Altogether 50 or so SS women worked in this camp until its evacuation in April 1945. The female survivors later reached the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

In 1985 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the scenic Freiberg Germany Temple here because of the large number of members in the region.