This is shown by a reappraisal study presented by scientists at the University of Paderborn on Thursday.
There is talk of 210 accused and 489 people affected between 1941 and 2002.
In the run-up to the presentation, serious accusations were also made against the former Archbishop of Paderborn, Johannes Joachim Degenhardt: He is said to have not only covered up abuse, but was himself the perpetrator.
In the new study, however, there are no concrete indications.
According to the spokesman of the district council in the Archdiocese of Paderborn, Reinhold Harnisch, the panel has been accused of a person affected against Degenhardt since the end of 2025.
At the time of the alleged act, the person concerned is said to have been a minor. Cardinal Degenhardt, who died in 2002, is considered to be the accused, according to the representation of the person concerned. She is investigating whether and to what extent there have been other victims and perpetrators.
Classification of the case difficult
Harnisch could not say whether this is one of the three cases that the Archdiocese of Paderborn had made public in October for reasons of transparency. For reasons of personal right, the representation of the data subject did not initially exchange data with the archdiocese. The Archdiocese of Paderborn has also so far been unable to answer this question.
The archdiocese had itself published allegations of abuse against Degenhardt in October and against its predecessor, Cardinal Lorenz Jaeger.
However, these accusations were partly incomplete, contradictory or brought via third parties, according to the archdiocese at the time. External experts would also have rated them as not plausible.
Church historian Nicole Priesching has also investigated these allegations as part of her study. However, she did not want to make a classification on Thursday, because the data situation was too thin: "I could not make an assessment before the current data material."
The case numbers of the study for the Archdiocese of Paderborn are about twice as high as the figures for the archdiocese determined in a Germany-wide study of 2018. Priesching and her team came across 210 clues to accused clergy. In addition, at least 489 children and adolescents were subjected to sexual assaults by clergy. However, it was only the bright field, the researchers added.
The so-called MHG study had identified only 111 accused and 197 victims in the Archdiocese of Paderborn in 2018. These figures refer to the period from 1946 to 2014. The current study covers the terms of office of the Archbishops Jaeger and Degenhardt from 1941 to 2002.
Priesching and her team have been investigating the phenomenon of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Paderborn for nearly six years. They read church records and interviewed contemporary witnesses.
They accused the two former archbishops of cover-up. The cardinals had shown great clemency towards accused priests, even if they had been convinced of their guilt. They would not have taken care of those affected.
Other Bishops under suspicion
The allegations of abuse against Degenhardt are not the first of its kind. The founding bishop of the diocese of Essen, Cardinal Franz Hengsbach (1910–1991), is also said to have been a perpetrator.
There are several allegations of sexual violence against him. They refer on the one hand to his term of office in Essen from 1958, on the other hand to the time before as a priest and auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Paderborn. A sociological-historical study investigates the allegations.
In addition, the former Hildesheim bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen (1907–1988) is also accused of abuse.
However, two reports have so far neither confirmed nor invalidated the allegations.
In 2027, another study is to be published on the term of office of the still living former Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker, who was at the head of the Archdiocese from 2002 to 2022.
On Friday, the archdiocese itself plans to comment on the study.
The reigning Archbishop Udo Markus Bentz sat in the audience at the presentation of the investigation.