Emanuel Ludvig Nobel ( , ;

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, 1859 –

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, 31 May 1932) was a Swedish oil baron, the eldest son of Ludvig Nobel and his first wife, Mina Ahlsell, grandson of

Immanuel Nobel Immanuel Nobel the Younger ( , ; 24 March 1801 – 3 September 1872) was a Swedish people, Swedish engineer, architect, inventor and industrialist. He was the inventor of the Lathe (tool), rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing. He was a mem ...

and nephew of

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( ; ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also m ...

Businessman

After his father's death, in 1888, Emanuel Nobel took over the running of the Nobel family's oil business, Branobel, an oil empire that was based in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

and was the largest oil company in Europe, of which he and his brothers and sisters were by far the main shareholders, followed by his uncles Alfred and Robert. Carl Nobel, Emanuel's brother, was put in charge of the Machine-Building Factory Ludvig Nobel. Emanuel Nobel was a very forward-looking businessman, just like his father, who had instigated the construction of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

's first

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

and the world's first

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...

in 1878, as well as the world's first railway

tank car A tank car (International Union of Railways (UIC): tank wagon) or tanker is a type of railroad car (UIC: railway car) or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodity, commodities. History Timeline The following major event ...

s in 1883. On 16 February 1898 Emanuel signed a licence agreement in Berlin with

Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (, ; 18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel; both are named after him. Early life and education Diesel was born on 1 ...

, after having heard Diesel describing his new engine in a public lecture. The agreement allowed Nobel to build the world's first

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

plant in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, and the engines were used to propel Branobel's fleet of

s. Emanuel led

to a dominating role in the global oil industry and Branobel activities soon developed throughout the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

, operating also in

Grozny Grozny (, ; ) is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 328,533 — up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Russian Census, 2002 ce ...

and Dosser. In 1888, Emanuel was host to Tsar Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) in

and was then personally requested by the Tsar to accept Russian citizenship, which he graciously accepted. He was later raised by the Tsar to

His Excellency Excellency is an honorific style (manner of address), style given to certain high-level officers of a sovereign state, officials of an international organization, or members of an aristocracy. Once entitled to the title "Excellency", the holder ...

. From 1891 until 1918,

Emanuel Nobel was also on the board of the Russian State Bank's Discount Committee. He was in charge of the company until he was forced to flee

due to the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

in the Summer of 1918. In 1904 in Baku was established the Russian Prize named after Emanuel Ludvigovich Nobel by Baku Branch of Imperial Russian Technical Society (devoted to 25th years anniversary of "BraNobel Co." in 1879). Prize was given four times (in 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1914 years). In 1919, Emanuel Nobel invested in the engineering office of Boris Hagelin. In 1922, he invested in Swedish cryptography company Cryptograph, installing Hagelin as a manager.

Emanuel's role in the execution of Alfred Nobel's will

After

died, in 1896, and his will was disclosed, the heirs of his eldest brother, Robert, displeased by the fact that the major part of their uncle's estate was bequeathed to the creation of the

Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation () is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. It also holds Nobel Sym ...

and of the

Nobel Prizes The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred ...

, started a legal action to invalidate it. Emanuel Nobel, however, as head of the younger branch of the family, played a fundamental role in supporting the execution of his uncle's wishes, pleading even before King Oscar II, and an agreement with Robert Nobel's heirs was reached in 1898, thus allowing the creation of the Nobel Prizes.Schück, Henrik, Ragnar Sohlman, Anders Österling, Carl Gustaf Bernhard, the Nobel Foundation, and Wilhelm Odelberg, eds. Nobel: The Man and His Prizes. 1950. 3rd ed. Coordinating Ed., Wilhelm Odelberg. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972, p. 47-64. (10). (13). (Originally published in Swedish as Nobelprisen 50 år: forskare, diktare, fredskämpar.)

Art collector

Like his father Ludvig, Emanuel Nobel was an enthusiastic art collector. The rooms of the Nobel family's residence in St. Petersburg and of its Summer residence, Kirjola, on the

Karelian Isthmus The Karelian Isthmus (; ; ) is the approximately stretch of land situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva. Its northwestern boundary is a line from the Bay of Vyborg to the we ...

, displayed one of the most important collections, after the

Romanov The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning dynasty, imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russi ...

Imperial Collection, of Fabergé's masterworks and of Russian painting. A considerable part of the collection kept in St. Petersburg was saved from the hands of the

Bolshevik 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, ...

s as well as most of the art objects that furnished Kirjola, which was destroyed during the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

in 1940.

Final years

The outcome of the

forced Emanuel to flee

in the Summer of 1918. After the seizure of the Nobel family's properties by the Bolsheviks, Emanuel gradually retreated from the direction of the family's businesses. He never married and died in 1932 in Sweden.

References

External links