The city of Paderborn is a large city in the eastern part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with over 150,000 inhabitants. It is located in the district of the same name and is its district town, is a university town, regional center and center of the Hochstift Paderborn region. The name refers to the sources of the Pader in today's city center.
Paderborn was first mentioned in a document in 777, when a Reichstag and a missionary synod took place in Paderborn under Charlemagne. The first Westphalian university was founded in Paderborn in 1614, which was later converted into an independent theological faculty. A new university was founded in 1972. The city has been the seat of a bishopric since the ninth century; this was elevated to an archdiocese in 1930.
The city received its current boundaries through the incorporation of surrounding communities as part of the regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1974, which made Paderborn a large city.
Today Paderborn is the 56th largest city in Germany.