Franziskanerkloster Paderborn, Franciscan monastery in Paderborn, Germany

The Franziskanerkloster Paderborn is a Baroque monastery complex on the Westernstraße, built from 1663 (convent) and 1668 (church) in an Italian style; a "Fürstenflügel" with infirmary and lecture hall was added in 1728. The street-facing facades survived the bombing of 27 March 1945, and the church reopened in 1948, the convent building three years later.

A first Franciscan house stood on the Kamp from about 1232, documented in 1235, and was dissolved during the Reformation; the last friars left in 1530. Observant Franciscans of the Saxon province settled in the Westernstraße in 1658, in a house given by the citizen Hermann Georg Rickwin, and entered it on 31 March 1658. The foundation stone of the convent was laid in 1663 and that of the church in 1668, producing a Baroque complex in Italian style. Suppressed during the Kulturkampf on 29 July 1875, the friars returned in 1887; the buildings burned on 27 March 1945 and were rebuilt, the church in use again by 1948.

The monastery remains an active place of faith where visitors can experience the contemplative life of the Franciscan community. The spaces reflect this spiritual tradition through their simple furnishings and the quiet rhythm of daily religious practice.

The monastery church on Westernstraße is the part visitors can enter; the convent buildings themselves are not open to the public. The Italian Baroque facade and the convent complex were restored after the air raid of 27 March 1945, which left only the facades facing Westernstraße standing. Spiritual lectures, concerts and exhibitions are held at the convent at intervals.

The Franciscan Elpidius Markötter (1911–1942), who died as a martyr, studied theology here. The monastery also ran a house of studies for the Saxon province in dogmatic-scholastic theology, and around 1800 the friars directed Paderborn's Normalschule. In 1811 fifteen priests and six lay brothers lived in the convent.