HERFORD, a town of Prussia, capital of a circle in the government district of Minden, province of Westphalia, is situated in a beautiful and fruitful district at the confluence of the Werra and Aa, and on the Minden and Cologne railway, 19 miles south-west of Minden. It possesses five evangelical churches, among which may be mentioned the Münsterkirche, a Romanesque building with a Gothic apse of the 15th century; the Marienkirche, in the Gothic style; and the Johanniskirche, with a tower 280 feet high. The other principal buildings are the Catholic church, the synagogue, the gymnasium founded in 1540, the agricultural school, and the theatre. The industries include cotton and flax spinning, and the manufacture of linen cloth, furniture, sugar, tobacco, and leather. The population of the town in 1875 was 11,967.

Herford owes its origin to a nunnery which is said to have been founded in 832, and was confirmed by Louis the Pious in 839. From the· emperor Frederick I. the abbess obtained princely rank and a seat in the imperial diet. The foundation was secularized in 1803. Herford was a member of the Hansa League. In 1631 it became a free imperial town, but in 1647 it was subjugated by the elector of Brandenburg. It came into the possession of Westphalia in 1807, and in 1813 into that of Prussia.