Lake Starnberg (German: Starnberger See), 25 kilometres southwest of Munich in southern Bavaria, is Germany's fifth largest freshwater lake and, 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
