karamba: this is a seperate application. so you have to make a link to it in ~/.kde/Autostart (guess where that map is for), or "enable auto-save session" or "restore manually saved session" in kcontrol (which does what it says: save session saves all open applications when you quit kde, and they will go on where you left when you start it again. and you can manually save a session if you choose "restore manually saved session". these options are under session management under kde-components).
and the kicker (startbar): tried moving it to another corner? or right-clicking it? it is extremely configurable, with tens of plugins, sidebars, (auto-)hide, change appearance (even translucent), size - everything. but it starts with KDE, it'll be hard to change that (altough I once saw an config file in ~/.kde/??? which could have been removed to not let the kicker start...