Named for a castle erected around 1064 near the town of Heppenheim. The name also applies to a region in the southern part of the German state of Hessen {see planet  (5846)}. As a private initiative, the Starkenburg Sternwarte was founded in 1970 on the Schlossberg just below the castle. This observatory is heavily involved in educating the public and providing astronomical knowledge to people far beyond the region. This minor planet was numbered as a result of astrometric CCD observations made at Starkenburg in Dec. 1995. (M 27332) _ _.