Ostersee is a group of lakes in the southern part of Lake Starnberg. Twenty large independent lakes with a total area of about 225 hectares have an average depth of 9 meters. The Ostersee Reserve has existed since 1981 and covers an area of 1083 hectares. About one third of the territory consists of reservoirs. In May 1997, in Brussels, Ostersee was declared a European Bird Reserve. Together with the Eggstett-Hemhofer Lake District and the Zeoner Lakes, this area is considered the largest and most structurally rich landscape in the Alpine foothills. The complex of marshes and lakes, low-lying, transitional and tall marshes, as well as deserts and scattered forests exhibit extraordinary biodiversity and are important for basic scientific research throughout Europe. The entire lake group owes its name to the largest and most eastern lake of the present group, the Großer Ostersee, which is derived from the old German adjective ōstar, meaning “east” or “lies in the east”. The beauty of this landscape has always attracted artists, especially Georg Schlimpf, the leading representative of the New Objectivity movement. He was so fascinated by the beauty of Ostersee that he created several oil paintings in the 1930s.