Paderborn District

Paderborn District is a Kreis (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Gütersloh, Lippe, Höxter, Hochsauerland, and Soest HochsauerlandSoest.

History
Paderborn was part of the Bishopric of Paderborn until it was included into Prussia in 1802. After the Napoleonic wars when Prussia created the province Westphalia it also created five districts roughly covering the area of the previous state - Brakel, Büren, Höxter, Paderborn and Warburg. In 1975 Paderborn and Büren districts were merged to the current Paderborn district. At the same time the towns and municipalities in the district were merged to form the today's ten towns municipalities. It is a rural district with urban municipalities.

Geography
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 its spring in Bad Lippspringe.

Coat of arms
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.