Paderborn (district): Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Statistics
State:	North Rhine-Westphalia
Adm. Region:	Detmold
Capital:	Paderborn
Area:	1,245.27 km²
Inhabitants:	293,791 (2002)
pop. density:	236 inh./km²
Car identification:	PB
Homepage:	http://www.kreis-paderborn.de
Map

Paderborn is a Kreis (district) in the middle of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Unna, Hochsauerland, Soest, Gütersloh.

History

Paderborn was a clerical state until it was included into Prussia in 1803. After the Napoleonic wars when Prussia created the province Westphalia it also created two districts roughly covering the area of the previous state - Paderborn and Büren. In 1975 these two districts were merged to the current Paderborn district.

The Paderborn district is located at the western slope of the Teutoburg Forest, west of the Eggegebirge. The highest elevation is the Am Totenkopf at the district border near Bleiwäsche (Bad Wünnenberg) with 498 m, the lowest near Delbrück with 77 m. The main river in the district is the Lippe, which has it's spring in Bad Lippspringe.

The red cross in the top of the coat of arms symbolizes the clerical state Paderborn, the historic precursor of today's district. The wave line below stands for the rivers in the district, especially the Lippe River. The symbol in bottom derives from the Lords of Büren.