After taking the first degree in law, Paeffgen finished his law studies in Cologne and Berlin in 1956. Ten years later, in 1970, he started to paint. At that time the artist also began joining found objects together by winding wire round them - a technique he still uses today. These 'wound objects', which he often continues to work on gradually, are confronted with the 'bordered paintings'. These are the traced outlines of newspaper pictures, which are projected and reworked on screen. In the 1980s Paeffgen became widely known for these works.
However he had already begun participating in exhibitions in the 1970s, such as at the Kunsthalle Köln in 1970 and the Kunstverein Hamburg in 1979. A remarkable number of solo exhibitions have followed since the 1970s. Paeffgen's works have been shown at exhibitions in the Gallery t'Venster in Rotterdam in 1977, and in 1979 at the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf and the Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum in Hagen. His art was also exhibited at the Bonner Kunstverein in 1981, at Artinzing in Munich in 1986, in 1992 at the Rudolf Zwirner Gallery in Cologne, and in the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hannover in 1993. Furthermore, the Museum Ludwig, the most prestigious contemporary art museum in Paeffgen's hometown of Cologne, presented his works in the spring of 1999.