100th anniversary of death - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1984 - 4 Shilling

The founder of the scientific heredity (genetics), Johann Gregor Mendel, was born on 22 July 1822 in Heinzendorf, in the former Austrian Silesia. At the age of 22, he entered after his Matura in the local Augustinian monastery. After completion of his spiritual studies in 1847 he was ordained a priest and the religious name "Gregory". In 1851 he was sent by his abbot to Vienna to study science and mathematics there. He subsequently dealt experimentally with plants and animals and especially with questions of heredity. After eight years of research, in 1868 he successfully completed his studies in this area. Mendel laid down three laws for heredity: the rule of uniformity, the rule of division, and the rule of independence. Already in 1865 he gave a lecture on the results of his "Experiments with plant hybrids" in the "Naturalist Association in Brno", which was also published. Mendel's work was already well-known during his lifetime. Nevertheless, they fell into oblivion again due to the lack of understanding of his time. It was only in 1900 that the significance of his research results was recognized and thus laid the foundation for the rapid development of genetics in our day. Mendel died at the age of 62 years.