G. J. Mendel and the crossroads of knowledge – Brno, G. Mendel’s memorial

Fact of the Czech figure „The intersection of Europe”

Part of the „Transfer of the culture” topic

The Augustinian monk Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), one of the founders of genetics, and arguably the most significant scientist to come from Czech lands, never realised that his experiments with crossbreeding pea varieties would change our understanding of nature forever.

Mendel was born in Hynčice in Silesia to a German peasant family, studied in Vienna and spent almost his entire life in the Augustinian monastery in Brno, where he was abbot for the last eighteen years. While Mendel was alive, the groundbreaking importance of his researches on heredity was not recognized. It was only a few years after his death that scientists from all over the world became interested in his remarkable findings, which later became the cornerstones of the new biological science of genetics and were named Mendel’s Laws of Heredity in honour of their discoverer.

The monastery and its garden, where the scholarly monk devoted himself to scientific experiments for many years without receiving any recognition, now houses the Mendel Museum of Masaryk University and indirectly reminds everyone that great scientific discoveries require ideas, patience and perseverance.