[1] Stille adhered to the contracting Earth hypothesis and together with Leopold Kober he worked on the geosyncline theory to explain orogeny.

[2] Stille's ideas emerged in the aftermath of Eduard Suess' book Das Antlitz der Erde (1883–1909).

Stille's and Kober's school of thought was one of two that emerged in the post-Suess era the other being headed by Alfred Wegener and Émile Argand.

[5] In 1933 Stille would shorten Leopold Kober's concept of kratogen, that was used to describe those portions of the continental crust that were old and stable, into kraton (English: craton).

Also named for him is the mineral stilleite (ZnSe) and the wrinkle ridge Dorsa Stille on the Moon.