* July 22th in 1822 (in Hyncice Moravia, Austria)
† January 6th in 1884 in Brno (Austria)

In 1865, the Augustinians, Father Johann Gregor Mendel (1822-84) in Brno (Brno, Czech Republic today) held) two lectures with the unassuming title "Experiments on Plant Hybridization" (crossing experiments with plants. His audience was sympathetic but uncomprehending. In the following year (1866) published the essay printed in the "negotiation of the Natural Science Society in Brno for the year 1865". Although this magazine in 120 university libraries and naturalist groups arrived and sent Mendel himself another 40 reprints of his treatise to his well-known experts, no one realized that such a mechanism is still a valid concept of genetic information units (Mendel called them "factors", today they are called genes, or gene) was discovered.

Johann Mendel's outstanding talent and curiosity already came during his school days to bear. 1822 Johann Mendel was the only son of peasants Anton Mendel and his wife Rosina, nee Schwirtlich in Hyncice (Hyncice, born in northeastern Moravia). John had an older and a younger sister. Although the parents were able to fund his education difficult, he completed six years of the Gymnasium in Opava. Here, he had over the last two years of school entirely dispense with the financial support of his parents and care only for his maintenance. In 1840, he prepared himself in Olomouc in the most difficult financial conditions prior to the study. Thanks to a renunciation of his younger sister on her legacy John could finish his preparations in 1843 with very good and excellent grades.

The efforts and concerns of his previous school, but were were so large that they associate with a recommendation of his physics teacher, asked the priest, Dr. Friedrich Franz, inclusion in the Augustinian monastery of St. Martin in Old Brno and in 1843 received. With this step, which was well-founded almost religiously, he could relieve his parents experiencing financial distress while at the same completely without constant cares his scientific interests. On admission as a novice monk Johann Mendel received the monastic name of Gregory (Gregory).

1844-48 studied at the Brno Mendel Theological college. Even before completing his theological studies he was ordained a priest in 1847. The majority of the round dozen priests at the Augustinian monastery was scientific, artistic and educational activities and worked to some extent outside of Brno. Mendel was initially procured a job as an assistant teacher at the school. After an unsuccessful Lehramtsprüfung allowed him the abbot of the monastery, from 1851 to 1853 begin at the University of Vienna to study in the natural sciences. Mendel was concerned with "Conspicuous experimental physics," Professor Christian Doppler (known by the Doppler effect, which he discovered and explained), zoology, botany, paleontology, chemistry, mathematics and anatomy and physiology of plants. But Mendel's favorite physics studies.

1853, Mendel returned to Brno, where he was employed in 1854 despite the lack of teaching degree at the Brno State Junior High School as an assistant teacher. Strangely, Mendel 1856, a second time fallen in Vienna by the teacher's exam, so it has never earned a decent teacher patent. Still, he has spent as a milder effect on all estimates and very popular teacher at the Brno State secondary school and - as he himself says - there "probably the happiest 14 years of his life". With the election of the prelate (abbot) of the monastery, he had to give him this expensive teaching.

Back in 1854, Mendel began in the monastery garden with the selection of suitable varieties of garden pea (Pisum sativum) for crossing experiments. In his experiments, he considered common characteristics of pea plants, or, who allowed a clear distinction is, for example, red-flowered and white-flowered, with yellow or green pea seeds. The crossing led by Mendel, by bringing pollen from peas of one race on the scars of peas of another race. This crossing technique was not new. What was new in his experiments that he examined large numbers of plants (from 355 artificial inseminations demonstrate he drew 12,980 hybrids) and thus secure results from the splitting of the characteristic of rule-based systems could. New and ingenious was his interpretation.

Since Mendel's time to be the link between heredity and the chromosomes (or DNA or genetic material) has not yet known, was probably his landmark findings by other researchers initially did not get any attention.

Only in 1900, 16 years after his death, Mendel's achievement of biologists independently rediscovered and confirmed cases are generally made public. In retrospect, must be presumed that Mendel's experiments has not done so, as he described it in his essay 1865th The experiments would have been too costly. In addition, statistically seen his lead "to exact" results to believe that Mendelsohn some discordant data has simply omitted. These scientific reprehensibility but not diminish the significance of his results. Possibly made by the "improvements" in results than he has himself installed the further exploration of the area.