The Paderborn writer Margarete Maria Elisabeth Schrader (pseudonym: Iris Perlmutt) was born on 7 April 1915 in Paderborn as the daughter of the merchant Carl (Karl) Schrader and his wife Maria, a former soprano. Margarete Schrader was a pupil at the Paderborn Lyceum, which she completed in 1931 after the 11th grade with a secondary school leaving certificate. She later attended the religious college in Elkeringhausen/Winterberg, a Catholic adult education centre in the German Reich. There she received the Missio Canonica, a church teaching authorisation, in 1938. After the end of the Second World War, she began her literary activities, increasingly focussing on religious themes. She published texts and poems in Paderborn's regional newspapers and later worked for various magazines, including "Christ in der Gegenwart", "Frankfurter Hefte" and "Warte - Heimatzeitschrift für die Kreise Paderborn und Höxter". She lived and worked in her home town until her death on 24 January 2001.

In her will, the Paderborn writer designated Paderborn University as her main heir. In this context, the University undertook to use the inherited assets both to take care of Margarete Schrader's literary legacy and to support literature in the Westphalia region. A foundation was set up to promote writers in Westphalia, and the Margarete Schrader Prize, endowed with 8,000 euros, has been awarded from its funds since 2003. A commission chaired by Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hartmut Steinecke selects literary figures every three years who were born in the Westphalia region or whose life and work have been characterised by the Westphalia region. The foundation's funds are also used to honour outstanding student work and sponsor literary projects at Paderborn University.

In 2007, Dr Petra Renneke edited a new volume of Margarete Schrader's central works, with an afterword by Prof. Dr Hartmut Steinecke. In August 2013, Prof Dr Hartmut Steinecke handed over Margarete Schrader's written estate to the Paderborn University Archives, where it has been permanently stored ever since.

The estate contains the literary writings and texts as well as the poems in their various versions, as well as various correspondence from and with Margarete Schrader. The printed matter and books that Margarete Schrader collected are also part of the estate. The publications about the writer and her works are also part of the estate, and the editors of the "Collected Works" have enriched the estate with their working materials.

The University Archive's audiovisual media holdings include an interview with Margarete Schrader conducted by Otmar Allendorf, director of the Paderborn Adult Education Centre, on the occasion of her 80th birthday (9/904 AVM, no. 115). The photos and pictures, some of which are illustrations in Margarete Schrader's publications, as well as blank postcards, have been assigned to the photo collection (9/900, 77-2685 to 77-2691) of the University Archives as part of the estate.

The estate of Carl Schrader, Margarete Schrader's father, which was handed over to the Paderborn City Archives after her death, also contains some of Margarete Schrader's personal papers.

Detailed information on the person and work of Margarete Schrader can be found in the Westfälisches Autorenlexikon, vol. 4, Paderborn 2002, pp. 739-742. The information is also available online at the URL: https://www.lexikon-westfaelischer-autorinnen-und-autoren.de/autoren/schrader-margarete-maria-elisabeth/; as of 10 September 2015.

The catalogue raisonné of Margarete Schrader's works compiled by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Steinecke and PD Dr. Petra Renneke is attached to the Findbuch (copy from NL 802, Acc. 2015/003, No. 34). As the estate was handed over to Prof. Dr Steinecke, the correspondence concerning the handover of the estate and the resulting liabilities is held by the Institute of German and Comparative Literature and the university administration.