Eduard Otto Emil Karl Adam Freiherr von Stackelberg (6 November 1867 in

Sillamäe Sillamäe (Estonian for 'Bridge Hill'; also known by the Germanised names of ''Sillamäggi'' or ''Sillamägi'') is a town in Ida-Viru County in the northeastern part of Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It has a population o ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

– 7 April 1943 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) was an Estonian chemist, landowner and politician who belonged to the

Stackelberg __NOTOC__ Stackelberg is a surname, mainly known as the surname of a noble family of Baltic German descent (see Stackelberg family). Notable people with the surname include: A *Adolphe Stackelberg (1822–1871), Swedish count and Christian reviva ...

family. As a chemist, he proposed a model for the

periodic table The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the elements, is an ordered arrangement of the chemical elements into rows (" periods") and columns (" groups"). It is an icon of chemistry and is widely used in physics and other s ...

in 1911. He was among the

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

landowners deported to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, first by the Tsarist authorities and later by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. Following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he lived in Germany. In 1927, he published a memoir.

Early life and education

Eduard von Stackelberg was the son of Otto Ferdinand Wolter von Stackelberg (1837-1909) and Sophie Marie Elizabeth von Seydlitz (vt. Seidlitz) (1837-1920). He was born at the manor of Sillamäggi, near the village of Repnik,

Kreis Wierland Wierland County ( or , , , ) was one of the four counties of the Russian Empire located in the Governorate of Estonia. It was situated in the eastern part of the governorate (in present-day northeastern Estonia). Its capital was Rakvere (''Wesen ...

Governorate of Estonia The Governorate of Estonia, also known as the Esthonia (Estland) Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. It was located in the northern Estonia with some islands in the West Estoni ...

(now Sillamäe and Hiiemetsa,

Ida-Viru County Ida-Viru County ( or ; ) is one of the 15 counties of Estonia. It is the most northeastern part of the country. The county contains large deposits of oil shale the main mineral mined in Estonia. Oil shale is used in the production of shale oil ...

). His father was a younger son in a large family, while his mother inherited the manor and lands of Sillamäggi. Eduard von Stackelberg attended Friedrich Kollmann's Gymnasium in

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

(now Tartu) from 1881 to 1884. He also studied from 1885 to 1886 at the Nicolai Gymnasium in

Reval Tallinn is the capital and most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and administratively lies in the Harju ''maakond'' (co ...

(now Tallinn).

Chemistry

From 1886 to 1892, Eduard von Stackelberg studied mathematics, chemistry and physics at the

Imperial University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

(now the University of Tartu), graduating with a degree in chemistry in 1893. He also studied at the Naturwissenschaften

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

from 1892 to 1893; with

Gabriel Lippmann Gabriel Lippmann ( ; 16 August 1845 – 12 July 1921) was a French physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 "for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference". Early life and educa ...

at the Sorbonne in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

from 1893 to 1894; and in the laboratory of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

from 1894 to 1895. From 1895 to 1896, he worked in the laboratory of

Wilhelm Ostwald Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald (; – 4 April 1932) was a Latvian chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst and Svante Arrhenius. ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

He was an assistant at the University of Dorpat in 1896, and a teacher at the

Riga Technical University Riga Technical University (RTU) () is the oldest technical university in the Baltic countries established on October 14, 1862. It is located in Riga, Latvia and was previously known as Riga Polytechnical Institute and Riga Polytechnicum. In 1 ...

from 1898 to 1899. After returning to

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

he worked as an assistant professor with

Gustav Tammann Gustav Andreas Tammann (24 July 1932 – 6 January 2019) was a Swiss astronomer and academic. He served as director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel; as a member of the European Space Agency Space Telescope Advisory Team, ...

at the University of Dorpat from 1896 to 1898. In 1911, Eduard von Stackelberg published a paper discussing a possible model for the

, ''Versuch einer neuen tabellarischen Gruppierung der Elemente auf Grund des periodischen Systems'' ("A New Tabular Grouping of the elements on the basis of the periodic system"). It was positively reviewed in ''

Chemical Abstracts Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) is a division of the American Chemical Society. It is a source of chemical information and is located in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Print periodicals ''Chemical Abstracts'' is a periodical index that provid ...

'': "The author gives a form of periodic table, which possesses certain advantages, especially that it aids in enabling one to remember the variation of certain physical and chem. properties of related elements in passing from group to group of the table."

Marriage

In 1896 in St. Petersburg, Eduard von Stackelberg married Elisabeth (Else) Marie von Sievers (vt. Sivers). They had three children: Nicolai Mark Otto August von Stackelberg (1896-1971), Brigitte, and Elisabeth. Eduard von Stackelberg's sister Sophie Amelie von Stackelberg married the brother of the chemist Andreas von Antropoff (1878-1956). Eduard's son Mark von Stackelberg studied chemistry with his uncle Andreas von Antropoff, completing his dissertation at the

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, and co-authoring an extensive discussion of the periodic table in the ''Atlas der physikalischen und anorganischen Chemie'' ("Atlas of physical and inorganic chemistry; The properties of the elements and their connections", 1929). Mark von Stackelberg later taught at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, working with

polarography Polarography is a type of voltammetry where the working electrode is a dropping mercury electrode (DME) or a static mercury drop electrode (SMDE), which are useful for their wide cathodic ranges and renewable surfaces. It was invented in 1922 by C ...

and

voltammetry Voltammetry is a category of electroanalytical methods used in analytical chemistry and various industrial processes. In voltammetry, information about an analyte is obtained by measuring the current as the potential is varied. The analytical d ...

Land and politics

As a landowner, Eduard Baron Stackelberg held the manors of Sutlem,

Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, continuing a further 35 km until it reaches the river A ...

and Mäeküla (Mähküll, ) (now Sutlema, Lümandu and Mäeküla,

Rapla County Rapla County ( or ''Raplamaa'') is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in the north-western part of the country and borders Järva County to the east, Pärnu County to the south, Lääne County to the west, and Harju County to ...

) in

Kreis Harrien Harrien County ( or , , ) was one of the four counties of the Governorate of Estonia. It was situated in the central part of the governorate (in present-day northern Estonia). Its capital was ''Reval'' (Tallinn), which was the capital of the gov ...

. He was a proponent of

patriotism and a leader of the Baltic Constitutional Party. Eduard von Stackelberg served as secretary of the

Estonian Knighthood The Estonian Knighthood (, ) was a medieval fiefdom, as well as a corporation of its nobility, that was organised and operated in what is now northern Estonia from the 13th to early 20th century. It was formally disbanded by the newly independen ...

from 1899 to 1911 and served as deputy chief captain of the knighthood from 1912 to 1918. Stackelberg was one of the founders of the Deutscher Verein in Estland (German Association of Estonia) in 1905, and served as its chairman. The association promoted a pan-Baltic organization, in sympathy with pan-Germanic ideals, while emphasizing that it still supported the

Russian Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

and constitution. When von Stackelberg attempted to organize a conference in Reval to bring together similar organizations, he was fiercely attacked by Russian press, the

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

and the Russian authorities. From 1915 to 1917, during

, Stackelberg and his family were sent to Jeniseisk in

by the Tsarists. They were exiled for their pro-German political position. Stackelberg remained in Siberia until the

1917 revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a civil war. It ...

, when he was allowed to return to Estonia. He quarreled severely with Count

Hermann von Keyserling Hermann Alexander Graf von Keyserling ( – 26 April 1946) was a Baltic German philosopher from the Keyserlingk family. His grandfather, Alexander von Keyserling, was a notable geologist of Imperial Russia. Life Keyserling was born to a wealth ...

, leader of a more cosmopolitan group of exiled Baltic Germans. In 1918, Stackelberg was deported again, when the

exiled German landlords. This time he was sent to

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

, Siberia. His baronial lands were confiscated and turned over to the state to become

collective farms Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member-o ...

. After the signing of the

Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, which ...

, which allowed deportees to return, he moved to Germany, where his wife still owned land in Lochen. As of autumn 1918, Eduard von Stackelberg lived in

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat of the district gove ...

near the outskirts of

. He returned to Berlin, where he served on the Baltic Confidence Council from 1919 to 1920. He worked with the association of Christian charities in Schleswig-Holstein until 1927. In 1927-1934, Stackelberg wrote a two-part memoir, ''A life in the Baltic struggle; Looking back on what is aspired, lost and won''. Eduard von Stackelberg died in Munich on 7 April 1943.

Bibliography

* * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stackelberg, Eduard von 1867 births 1943 deaths People from Sillamäe Estonian chemists 20th-century Estonian politicians Estonian people of Baltic German descent People involved with the periodic table

Eduard Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. History Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Follo ...