Born in Essen, von Padberg received his doctorate from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster in 1980.
His Habilitationsschrift, Mission und Christianisierung, was published in 1995 by Franz Steiner Verlag, and is a synthesis of earlier research (especially by Arnold Angenendt [de] and Otto Gerhard Oexle [de]) on the social life of the missionaries and the social consequences of their activities; Von Padberg was praised as profoundly knowledgeable on the matter, and his book as a very useful synthesis with "exciting" interpretations.
[4] He is an expert on the life and work of Saint Boniface,[5] and his Der Ragyndrudis-Codex des hl.
[6] In his 1996 monograph Studien zur Bonifatiusverehrung: Zur Geschichte des Codex Ragyndrudis und der Fuldaer Reliquien des Bonifatius von Padberg examines the so-called "protection hypothesis", the theory that the Ragyndrudis Codex was used by the saint to protect himself during his martyrdom in Dokkum in Friesland.
He concludes that it is possible that this codex (with two other important codices which have also been saved for posterity and are held in Fulda) was indeed owned by the saint but that the physical evidence makes it unlikely that the "protection hypothesis", a recurring theme in images and vitae of the saint, is correct.