| Lake Starnberg | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bavaria |
| Lake type | Natural lake |
| Primary inflows | Ostersee-Ach |
| Primary outflows | Würm |
| Catchment area | 314 km² |
| Basin countries | Germany |
| Max. length | 20.2 km |
| Surface area | 58.36 km² |
| Max. depth | 127.8 m |
| Water volume | 2,998,000,000 m³ |
| Residence time | 21 years |
| Surface elevation | 596 m |
| Islands | Roseninsel |
| Settlements | Starnberg, Ammerland, Seeshaupt, Tutzing, Feldafing, Possenhofen |
Lake Starnberg (German: Starnberger See), 25 kilometers southwest of Munich in southern Bavaria, is Germany's fifth largest freshwater lake and,[1] due to its large average depth, the second richest in water. It is also a popular recreation area for the nearby city of Munich and since 1976, one of the wetlands of international importance protected by the Ramsar Convention.
The small town of Berg, Upper Bavaria near Starnberg, is famous as the site where King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in the lake in 1886. The lake is also known as Royal Lake. The lake is also cited in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land.
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The lake, which was created by ice age glaciers from the Alps, extends 21 km (13 mi) from north to south and has a width of 3-5 km (2-3.5 miles) from east to west. It has a single, small island, the Roseninsel, and a single outlet, the Würm river (because of this river the lake was called the Würmsee until 1962). Its major inflow comes from a chain of small lakes in the south, Osterseen. This small river is called Ach or Ostersee-Ach. The lake's water is of excellent quality due to a circular sewerage system being introduced in the 1960s, collecting all wastewater from around the lake and transporting it to a treatment plant below the lake's outlet at Starnberg.
It is possible to circumnavigate the lake by cycle. Passenger services have operated on the lake since 1851. Today they are operated by the Bayerische Seenschifffahrt company, using modern motor ships.[2][3]
The earliest mentions of the lake as Würmsee Uuirmseo appears in an 818 document which refers to Holzhausen on Würmsee.[4] Later it was Wirmsee at an early source of the reign of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria (1314-1347).[5] The name is derived from the river Wirmer (now Würm) which flows along Starnbergs as the single river from the lake. In the 19th century the spelling of the two was changed to Würm Würmsee. Only in 1962 the name of the lake became officially Lake Starnberger, term which began to prevail from the end of the 19th century. The construction of a railway line by the lake from the former Starnberger wing station in Munich led to a large number of new cities and it soon became a tourist destination.
Towns by the lake include Starnberg in the north, Seeshaupt in the south, and Tutzing in the west. The following communities also have been part of the lake (clockwise from north):
Before the western shore, south of Possenhofen, is the small island Roseninsel, or Rose Island, the site of a royal villa of Ludwig II.