GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL

Transcription

Gregor Johann Mendel
A Legend of Brno – The City of Science and Research (2012)
LEOŠ JANÁČEK
IKONA BRNĚNSKÉHO UMĚLECKÉHO PARNASU
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Gregor Johann Mendel
A Legend of Brno – The City of Science and Research
2012
Gregor Johann Mendel A Legend of Brno – The City of Science and Research
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SOUTH MORAVIAN REGION ......................................................................................................... 5
HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN BRNO AND SOUTH MORAVIA .......................... 8
PERSONALITIES OF THE SCIENCE WORLD IN BRNO AND SOUTH MORAVIA ............ 10
BRNO UNIVERSITIES ..................................................................................................................... 13
CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE ........................................................................................................ 16
CONTEMPORARY PERSONALITIES OF THE SCIENCE WORLD IN BRNO ...................... 18
G. J. MENDEL, A LEGEND OF BRNO – THE CITY OF SCIENCE AND RESEARCH ......... 19
Mendel about Himself ........................................................................................................................ 26
Mendel and Beekeeping ..................................................................................................................... 28
Mendel – the Farmer ........................................................................................................................... 30
Mendel – the Meteorologist ................................................................................................................ 32
Mendel’s Discovery ............................................................................................................................ 35
Mendel’s Manuscript ......................................................................................................................... 38
When Science Meets Faith ................................................................................................................. 39
FROM MENDEL’S TIME UNTIL THE PRESENT ....................................................................... 40
BEARING MENDEL’S NAME ........................................................................................................ 42
MENDEL’S TOPOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 44
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE .................................................................................................. 60
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Painting of G. J. Mendel by A. Zenker, oil on canvas, 1884
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SOUTH MORAVIAN REGION
The South Moravian Region is a region of historical significance as it is an intersection of
roads leading from the south of Europe to the north and from the west to the east. It neighbours
with Austria in the south and with Slovakia in the east. As for the national structure, Brno is
adjacent to the South Bohemian Region, Vysočina Region, Olomouc Region, Pardubice Region
and Zlín Region. The region is divided into seven districts (Blansko, Brno-City, Brno-Country,
Břeclav, Znojmo, Hodonín and Vyškov). It is the fourth largest region of the Czech Republic,
with an overall area of 7,195 km2. The highest point of the region is the Čupec hill with an
altitude of 818 meters, located at the borderline of the Zlín Region and Slovakia. The lowest
point of the region is the confluent of the Morava and Dyje rivers by Lanžhot with an altitude
of mere 150 meters. The countryside of the South Moravian Region is various and it reflects the
complicated geology and geomorphology of the region. The complex terrain affects the ways
of using the natural resources and living.The region may be divided into several different types
of landscape:
• Extensive cave structures of the Moravian Karst in the northern part of the region, known
mainly for the Macocha Abyss, 138.5 meters deep, rocky hillsides, gorges and many protected
areas. Many of the caves in this unique area that are one of the most ecologically clean in
the Czech Republic are open to the public and much frequented by both Czech and foreign
tourists.
of alluvial forests along the Dyje River. The Podyjí National Park in the southwest corner
of the region is an example of an exceptionally preserved river valley in an amply forested
countryside. The abundance of water bodies along Dyje between Znojmo and Břeclav
provides a perfect nesting place for waterfowl. Pálava and the Lednice-Valtice Cultural
Landscape are the symbols of this part of SouthMoravia. The Nové Mlýny dams are
visited by lovers of all water sports and fishing every year.
• The south part of the region is mostly flat – fields, meadows and vineyards with remnants
• The landscape slowly rises into the hills of the White Carpathians behind the Morava River.
This biospheric preserve is one of the most valuable nature preserves in Europe.
• The countryside around Brno is influenced by the existence of a large urban agglomeration
but it is still considered to be one of the most beautiful areas in the country. Brno adjoins the
forests of the Moravian Karst in the north, the open flatlands of South Moravia in the south
and the forested recreation area of the Brno dam.
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The South Moravian Region is a region with an important economic potential. The gross
domestic product of the region represents a tenth of the national gross domestic product. With
regard to the industrial tradition of Brno and its surroundings, the processing industry as well
as trade, consumer goods repairs and commercial services play a dominant role in the regional
economy. Agriculture, particularly in the south, is a traditional sector – almost 60% of the
total area of the region is covered with agricultural land, out of which 83% is arable. The
Vyškov and Znojmo districts have the highest level of ploughed land (the share of arable land
in the agricultural land). In term of production areas, agriculture nowadays focuses on cereals,
rape and sugar beet. The favourable natural preconditions facilitate the continuation of the
long-lived tradition of specialised agricultural branches: viniculture and fruit and vegetable
growing. More than 90% of the Czech vineyard area is located in the region. Viniculture is
particularly developed in the Břeclav Region (with 46% of the total Czech vineyard area) and in
the districts of Hodonín, Znojmo and partially also in Brno-Country. As for animal husbandry,
the South Moravian Region ranks as one of the leading regions of the country in pig and poultry
breeding.
The region has an environment of quite a good quality. Air pollution, noise and other adverse
effects only have a local character, namely near large industrial centres or important traffic
routes. Hodonín and Brno-City reach adverse values of pollutant emissions. Also, the increasing
number of cars, particularly in large cities, contributes to the pollution. The population using the
sewerage system with a water treatment plant in the region is increasing, which helps improve
the pollution of the rivers Morava, Dyje and Svratka. The South Moravian Region pays a lot of
attention to environmental issues, as the volume of its annual investments used for the protection
of the environment shows.
Brno, the regional metropolis, is a natural attraction zone of South Moravia. The city lies
at the confluent of Svratka and Svitava and as a place with a significant regional position,
situated at the crossroads of highways and motorways leading to Prague, Vienna, Bratislava
and Olomouc, it is a centre of traditional international expositions and fairs that underline its
status of a busy international business centre. The importance of the second largest city in
the country exceeds the borders of the region. It is a seat of many institutions of a national
significance, particularly supreme bodies of Czech judicature, and a prominent centre of culture
and university education.
In term of transport, the South Moravian Region plays an important transit function. The body
of the transport system includes D1 and D2 highways and I/43 and R52 roads. Brno is an
important traffic junction for road, highway and railway transportation as well as the integrated
transport system of the South Moravian Region. The Brno-Tuřany international airport accepts
all types of aircraft and checks in about 500 thousand passengers every year. Two major railway
corridors, connecting EU countries, run through the region and the City of Brno is a member of
an association of European cities interested in building a speed railway.
The South Moravian Region is a region attractive for tourists. There are two places registered
in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The first one is the Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape
which is an example of an “artificial cultural landscape” – a system of woods, meadows and
water bodies brilliantly complemented with romantic structures of temples and pavilions and
the Lednice and Valtice chateaux. Then there is Villa Tugendhat in Brno, a work of Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe, which represents the uniqueness of interwar modern architecture. The
treasury of natural resources of the South Moravian Region includes two UNESCO biospheric
preserves – Lower Morava and the White Carpathians. Other natural attractions include the
Podyjí National Park and the area of the Moravian Karst with tens of underground caves and
other karst phenomena.
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As for cultural monuments, Brno has a privileged position. In its vicinity, there is the battlefield
of one of the bloodiest Napoleonic wars, known as the Battle of Three Emperors, or the Battle
of Austerlitz. The rich history of the South Moravian Region is demonstrated by numerous
archaeological sites, chateaux, castle ruins, churches and synagogues. Visitors can learn about
national architecture in the Strážnice open-air museum as well as in other South Moravian rural
areas. Traditional public festivals are still held in the region – winter carnivals, feasts, grape
harvest, harvest festivals and other ceremonies. There are many unique vine structures in the
region, which is known for its viniculture. In Přímětice in the Znojmo region, you can find one
of the largest cross cellars in the world and there are also protected historical wine cellars in
Petrov near Strážnice and Baroque cellars in Pavlov.
As for tourism, cycling also plays an important role in addition to monuments and folk traditions
(Moravian-Silesian distance cycling route, Greenways, Amber route, Brno – Vienna route). And
we should also mention the Masaryk Circuit that attracts a large number of Czech and foreign
motorsport fans every year.
The South Moravian Region supports the establishment of micro-regions, which represents a
significant part of regional cooperation. The establishment of micro-regions is an important and
positive trend in the advocacy of common interests and intentions of rural municipalities aimed
at the development of all municipalities in a defined area. The international cooperation in
the Pomoraví Euro-region that associates the regions of Weinviertel, South Moravia and West
Slovakia continues to develop.
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HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN BRNO
AND SOUTH MORAVIA
The scientific research in the south of Moravia generally goes back to the era of Jan Amos
Komenský but practically it is related to the turn of the 18th and 19th century, initiated by
changes in the production, particularly the transformation from manufacturing to factory
production. Brno and its surroundings with the dominant textile industry became the “Austrian
Manchester” in the 19th century. However, the arrival of factory textile production brought
about a demand for machinery equipment and thus the engineering industry started to expand
quickly. The introduction of industry caused a large demand for raw material, including energy.
The 19th century thus proceeded in South Moravia under the sign of a sudden growth of the
demand for coal. All of that, together with the development of the processing industry, triggered
a great interest in increasing production efficiency and securing a research platform in the
individual fields. There was a development in technical fields, followed by chemistry, biology
and other sciences.
To understand the progress to Mendel’s discoveries, we need to look at the history of cultivation
in Moravia. If we want to learn about the impulses that led Mendel to research inheritance, we
have to let go of the romantic image of a monk who cross-bred peas in his free time as a mere
hobby. We have to go several years back. Brno was a modern and expanding central European
metropolis. The people at Mendel’s time yearned for education.
Christian Carl André (1736-1831) was a personality who significantly contributed to the
development of natural sciences in Moravia. This well-known naturalist came to Brno from
Saxony in 1798. He was a secretary of the Moravian Economic Society and he became a
secretary of the Association of Sheep Breeders in 1814, which he founded. The association
focused on improving wool production for then developing textile industry. André’s interest
in cultivation also led to the establishment of the Pomological Association that was involved
in the preparation of methods for cultivating fruit tree and vine species. André’s interest in
sheep breeding was inspired by the success of English breeder Robert Bakewell (1725–1795)
who managed to rear a sheep breed with half the weight of bones and double the weight of
meat by inbreeding connected with a selection of parental couples. The success of this method
also encouraged the effort to increase the quality and quantity of wool in the same way, i.e. by
inbreeding. However, increasing the quality of wool is much more difficult and the only breeder
who managed to do that was Ferdinand Geisslern from Moravia (1751–1824). André actively
exchanged letters with the world thanks to charitable Regional Chancellor Prokop Lažanský
(1771–1824). When Lažanský left, André moved to Stuttgart. However, he ordered his son to
write a book on sheep breeding using the knowledge of the best breeding school by Moravian
breeder Geislern. While in Brno, André asked G. C. L. Hempel, a member of the London
Horticultural Association, to explain the use of artificial plant pollination for more productive
species to the members of the Moravian Pomological Association. In his contributions for the
Moravian Economic Association, Hempel emphasised the necessity of learning the laws of
hybridization. In his words, the explorer of this law must have tireless patience, deep knowledge
of botany and a talent for observation.
The arrival of Professor Johann Karl Nestler (1783-1841) to the Olomouc University and
Professor Franz Diebl (1770-1859) to the Institute of Philosophy in Brno was a profound
step forward in the scientific recognition of the principles of inheritance. Nestler incorporated
scientific plant cultivation and animal breeding into his lessons of natural science and agricultural
science. In 1839, he published an extensive study entitled Inheritance in Sheep Breeding.
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He was one of the first people who expressed the thought that nature creates natural species
regardless of the participation of the man but that the man may imitate this process by
systematic control of the reproductive cycle by creating fertile modified organisms. Many years
later, Charles Darwin, independently of Nestler, elaborated on this topic. Professor Diebl, with
whom Mendel later studied, described the method of artificial pollination as the major method
of cultivating new species of agricultural crops.
František Cyril Napp (1795-1867), the Augustinian Abbot in Old Brno, was a prominent member
of the Association of Sheep Breeders and the Pomological Association. He knew Nestler and
Diebl well. He was aware of the complexity and significance of understanding the principles of
inheritance. At a congress in 1836, he pointed out that the transfer of traits from the producing
to the produced should be a subject of attentive physiological research. In 1837, Napp was one
of the first to present this scientific problem – the need to find what and how is inherited.
Six years later, Abbot Napp accepted Mendel as a novice of the Augustinian Order. Mendel
soon started scientific research and after his studies of agricultural science with Prof. Diebl
and of mathematics, physics and plant physiology in Vienna, he started his pea hybridization
experiments. He presented the results of his work at the meeting of the Scientific Society in
Brno in 1865. The participants did not understand that he was explaining the scientific problem
Abbot Napp presented almost thirty years ago.
Cyril Napp, the Abbot of the Old Brno Monastery
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PERSONALITIES OF THE SCIENCE WORLD IN BRNO
AND SOUTH MORAVIA
Jiří Josef Kamel
– born on 21 April 1661 in Brno, died on 2 May 1706 in Manila, Philippines. Kamel was a
Jesuit missionary but he was also interested in botany. He has a secure position in the history
of world pharmacy as the discoverer of new medicines and as a pharmacist. He settled down in
Manila in June 1689 after his journey to the Philippines with Jesuit missionaries. He founded
a pharmacy based on a central European model at the local Jesuit College. He used European
drugs that he supplemented with local medical plants, the effects of which he explored. He
founded a botanical garden and he was the first person to collect the local plants and prepare
herbaria, study local animals, make their drawings and keep detailed descriptions. The results
of his work were published in the oldest scientific magazine – Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society, published in Great Britain. In 1699, he was the first one to describe Srychnos
Ignatii, a plant whose beans were used by French chemists P. J. Pelletier and J. B. Caventou to
isolate strychnine alkaloid. Carl Linné named one of the flowers Camellia japonica in honour
of Kamel. Kamel’s journals and drawings are archived at the Natural History Museum in
London.
Václav Prokop Diviš
– born on 26 March 1698 in Helvíkovice near Žamberk,
died on 21 December 1765 in Přímětice u Znojma. He was
a Premonstratensian, famous for his invention of a lightning
conductor. During his life, he worked as a priest and a prior
of a monastery in Znojmo-Louka. He was interested in
natural sciences, particularly with focus on electric current.
His invention – a lightning conductor with earthing – is
today commemorated by a monument in Přímětice where he
managed a parish.
Jan Evangelista Purkyně
– born on 18 December 1787 in Libochovice, died on 28
July 1869 in Prague. Purkyně is known mainly as a biologist,
anatomist as well as a poet and philosopher. He spent nine
years as a student with the Piarists in Mikulov. He entered
history with his physiological and anatomical research. He is
considered to be a co-founder of cytology. Many phenomena
bear his name, such as Purkyně effect, Purkyně images or cell
structures – Purkyně tissue or Purkyně cells. Purkyně is also
the author of Czech physiological terminology.
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Ernst Mach
– born on 18 February 1838 in Chrlice, died on 19 February 1916
in Vaterstetten, Germany. Mach was an important theoretical
physicist and a rector of the Imperial and Royal Charles and
Ferdinand University. Even Albert Einstein recognized his
qualities. Ernst Mach is one of the most prominent personalities
in science of the second half of the 19th century, particularly
in the field of experimental physics. Many physical solutions
and terms bear his name. As a scientist, he was famous for his
profoundness, precision and brief and apt idea formulations. As a
teacher and philosopher, he was an author of many textbooks and
well-arranged compendiums in the field of physics; he was one
of the founders of this discipline in Bohemia in its modern form.
The value of majority of Mach’s physical works is independent of
time. The Mach’s principle, introduced by Albert Einstein, later led to the theory of relativity.
Lessons in physics use Mach’s wave gauge and Mach’s pendulum. Mach cone, Mach angle and
Mach numbers are used in the aerodynamics of ultrasonic speeds.
Kurt Gödel
– born on 28 April 1906 in Brno, died on 14 January 1978 in
Princeton, USA. Gödel was a prominent mathematician who was
also interested in physics and the most prominent logician of all
times. His works in physics and in the philosophy of mathematics
are very important. In 1930, he published the theorem on the
completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic and
in 1931 he made a fundamental discovery – two theorems on the
incompleteness of formally undecidable propositions of Principia
Mathematica and related systems. These theorems ended more than
fifty years of efforts of logicians and mathematicians to completely
formalise mathematics and they also influenced the scientific and
philosophical thoughts of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st
century. In the field of physics, he originally upgraded Einstein’s general theory of relativity by
formulating and finding a cosmological model of a rotating universe allowing time travel. He
started the discussions on whether or not such travel opposes physical or philosophical principles
or whether or not it could be technically achievable. In 1949, he formulated a cosmological
model of universe with time loops allowing return to one’s own past.
Viktor Kaplan
– born on 27 November 1876 in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, died on
23 August 1934 in Unterach, Austria. He worked at the German
Technical Institute in Brno as a constructor. In 1913, he became the
leader of the Department of Theory and Construction of Hydraulic
Engines. In 1918, he was appointed a full professor there. Kaplan
performed many experiments in Brno in order to describe the best
parameters of Francis turbines and to modify them for various
values of flows and gradients. In 1912, he invented a water turbine
with adjustable blades. The inlet angles of the water stream are
optimally adjusted by turning the blades of the rotating wheel,
which preserves a high efficiency of the turbine even when the
flow is low. In 1920, the Kaplan turbine was finally patented after
long disputes.
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Georg Placzek
– born on 26 September 1905 in Brno, died on 9 October 1955 in
Zurich. He was the only Czech who participated in the first test
explosion of the nuclear bomb. As a top physicist, he cooperated
with many prominent scientists such as Werner Heisenberg,
Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Victor Frederic Weisskopf, Lev
Davidovich Landau, Georg Gamow or Robert Oppenheimer.
Together with Max Frisch, Placzek is a co-author of the direct
experimental proof of nuclear fission. He and Bohr and other
scientists discovered the role of uranium isotope U235 with grave
consequences for the development of the first nuclear bomb and
nuclear reactor. His father, Alfréd Placzek, was a prominent
Moravian textile manufacturer, the son of Moravian regional
rabbi Dr. Baruch Placzek.
Josef Augusta
– born on 17 March 1903 in Boskovice, died on 4 February 1968 in Prague. Augusta was a
prominent Czech palaeontologist. He was the dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the
Charles University. He devoted his whole life to popularization of palaeontology; he participated
in the making of the movie “Journey to the Beginning of Time” by director Karel Zeman. Josef
Augusta worked at the Masaryk University in Brno until 1931 and he started working at the
Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Charles University in 1933. In his scientific work, Josef
Augusta was first involved in Permian flora and he studied the Palaeozoic amphibians and
fish. However, he soon became a significant populariser. He achieved international renown
particularly thanks to his reconstructions of primeval flora and fauna in cooperation with
academic painter Zdeněk Burian. He published his scientific work in many domestic and foreign
professional magazines. Josef Augusta wrote one hundred and twenty scientific publications
and many popular science books.
Karel Absolon
– born on 16 June 1877 in Boskovice, died on 6 October 1960
in Brno. He was a distinguished European archaeologist and
explorer in the Moravian Karst. He helped discover the Venus
of Dolní Věstonice or the connection of the Punkva caves with
the Macocha Abyss. From the beginning of the 19th century, he
was engaged in the research of Sloup caves and collection of
cave insect. In 1908, he started working as the conservator of the
zoological collections of the Moravian Museum in Brno where he
built and managed a diluvial department. His greatest ambition
– to build a scientific institute called Anthropos for the research
of Pleistocene humans – failed to be fulfilled during the First
Czechoslovak Republic and during the Protectorate. Anthropos
was not opened until 1962.
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BRNO UNIVERSITIES
Brno is one of the cities of the highest ratio of university students to the population with its
380 thousand inhabitants and about 80 thousand university students. They say that every
fourth person you meet in Brno is a student. The great potential of higher education is not only
demonstrated by the number of universities and other colleges, but also by the newly built
centres of excellence. We will introduce the Brno universities briefly; with regard to the subject
matter of this text, we will not mention the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts and
private colleges with bachelor study programmes focused on the education of experts for the
narrowly specified areas of economics or public administration.
Brno University of Technology
The first university in Brno was founded on the basis of a decree on the foundation of the Czech
university of technology in Brno signed by Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of
Hungary on 19 September 1899. The Brno University of Technology was thus the first Czech
university in Moravia. The university started with four professors and 47 students and after
more than 110 years of its history, it has achieved the position of an internationally renowned
educational institution that offers contemporary top scientific and professional knowledge at
eight faculties and the Institute of Forensic Engineering offering a wide range of fields of study
– from technical and scientific through economics to arts.
The Brno University of Technology currently has 24 thousand students and offers fields of study
at eight faculties and two university institutes – Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Information Technology, Faculty of Business
and Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of
Fine Arts, Institute of Forensic Engineering and Centre of Sports Activities.
The university mainly focuses on technical fields and management. It reaches a very high quality
in the field of nanotechnology as well as civil and mechanical engineering. Many of its projects
have been supported by distinguished institutions such as NASA or FBI.
University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno
The University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno was founded on 12 December
by Act No. 76/1918 Coll., On the Foundation of the Czechoslovak State Veterinary University
in Brno. It was the first university founded by the newly established Czechoslovak Republic. It
was established at the premises of the former equestrian quarters and the regional protectory.
The university was founded by Prof. MUDr. et MVDr. h.c. Eduard Babák, who was also its
first rector. The lessons commenced on 17 November 1919. At the beginning, the university
developed as a mono-faculty university focused on veterinary medicine. In 1975, two fields of
study were opened there – general veterinary medicine (later veterinary medicine) and veterinary
medicine – hygiene of food (later veterinary hygiene and ecology). In 1990, two faculties were
founded – Faculty of General Veterinary Medicine (today Faculty of Veterinary Medicine)
and Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology. In 1991, the third Faculty of Pharmacy was
opened. Since 1994, the university is presented under the name the University of Veterinary and
Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno.
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Masaryk University
One of the most prominent educational institutions in the Czech Republic and renowned central
European university with democratic traditions promoted since its establishment in 1919. It is
the second largest university in the Czech Republic (first being the Charles University) that
employs 4,849 people and offers 1,400 fields of study at nine faculties with more than 200
departments, institutes and clinics to almost 45 thousand full-time students (out of which more
than 6,600 are from abroad). The number of applicants for studies in the Czech Republic has
been the largest at the Masaryk University for several years. For example, 77,300 students
applied for studies at the Masaryk University in 2011.
Science and research are one of the fundamental priorities of the Masaryk University. The
university ranks among the best institutions in competitions for the support of research projects;
it invests extraordinary resources into the development of research and educational capacities
in the new university campus, develops activities in the field of transfer of knowledge and
promotion of science and innovations.
The Masaryk University provides education within a wide range of traditional and modern
university disciplines and it is one of the fastest growing educational institutions in Europe. The
university puts emphasis on international cooperation with prestigious international universities
and scientific institutions. It promotes continuous exchange of knowledge, ideas, information,
scientific workers, teachers and students with the world and provides equal opportunities of
accessing education and free research. The university intensively participates in mobility
activities and research programmes of the European Union and other countries, thanks to which
students may continue with their master or doctoral studies at the Masaryk University after
completing bachelor or master studies at another university. In the same way, the students of
the Masaryk University have the opportunity to study abroad and then return to the Masaryk
University.
The characteristic feature of the education is a unique approach to students with sensory or
physical disabilities. The Support Centre for Students with Special Needs ensures that the fields
of study accredited at the university are also accessible to such students. It creates conditions that
allow students with special needs achieve the same level of education as any other students.
The Masaryk University mainly communicates with its students and employees electronically.
The information system of the Masaryk University received the prestigious 2005 EUNIS
Elite Award which the university received as recognition of its leading position in the use of
information technology within Czech university education.
Mendel University
The Mendel University is the oldest agricultural and forestry university in the Czech Republic.
It was founded in 1919 as the Brno Agricultural University and existed under this name until
1994. Its foundation accomplished the long efforts to establish an agricultural university in
Moravia which has always been one of the regions with the most advanced agriculture in Europe.
During its existence, the school has undergone many organizational and content changes and has
prepared thousands of experts working in different spheres of national economy and economic
practice.
The Mendel University has five faculties and one university institute: Faculty of Agronomy,
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Faculty of Business and Economics, Faculty of
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Horticulture, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies and the Institute of
Lifelong Learning. The Faculty of Horticulture is based in Lednice; the other faculties are in
Brno. The number of students at the university is currently 10,654 students, out of which 585
are international.
The Mendel University in Brno systematically responds to the changes in the national and
international environment and flexibly adjusts the content, forms and methods of education
to those changes. The students can choose from 42 accredited bachelor fields of study and 47
master fields of study. The offer includes such attractive fields as Agro-ecology, Biotechnology,
Phytopathology, Automobile Transport, Horse Breeding and Agro-tourism, Waste Technology,
Food Technology, Regional Development, Furniture Design and Production, Biotechnical
Treatment of Landscape, Forestry, Economic Information Technology, Tourism, Public
Administration, Finances, Garden and Landscape Architecture, Viniculture and Wine Making,
Horticulture, Technical Expert Knowledge and Insurance and many other fields.
In the field of international relations, the employees and students often use study, seminar and
work stays and internships at universities in France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Finland, Spain
or other countries. Students can also participate in cooperation within international bilateral
agreements, of which the university currently holds almost fifty. Such agreements concern
countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Thailand, China, Chile, Nicaragua, Canada, USA, Great
Britain or Russia.
Science and research are a permanent and traditional part of the activities of the academic
workers at the Mendel University in Brno. The scope and diversification of research activities
are demonstrated in the material focus of research projects: covering an area from factors of
agricultural, forestry, horticultural and wood production (land, water and other living and nonliving inputs), relations of production and sales functions of agricultural and forestry, to the
environment, processing and evaluation of primary production, organization and management
of processes related to the provision of relevant activities in the course of the entire food chain
as well as evaluation of their economic efficiency up to the impacts of such activities in wider
economic relations and emphasis on rural areas.
University of Defence
The main mission of the University of Defence is to educate and to develop independent
scientific research in the fields important for the security of the Czech Republic and for the
fulfilment of the country’s allied commitments. The university focuses on education and
preparation of military professionals for the needs of the Czech Armed Forces and on scientific
activity in favour of the Ministry of Defence. There are three faculties at the University of
Defence: Faculty of Economics and Management, Faculty of Military Technologies and
Faculty of Military Health Sciences. The university also includes the Institute of Defence
against Weapons of Mass Destruction. The educational process at the University of Defence is
strongly military-oriented. However, the university education of the graduates is universal and
provides for their wide lifelong application in both military and personal life.
The University is also open to civil and international students and as for the educational and
scientific aspect, its scope of activity significantly exceeds the section of defence, also beyond
the territory of the Czech Republic. It fosters and develops specific fields of study related to
state security, its defence and especially the industry of defence that no other university in the
Czech Republic offers.
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CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE
CEITEC is a construction project of a central European scientific and research centre of
excellence that the local universities and research establishments (Masaryk University, Brno
University of Technology, Mendel University, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Veterinary
Research Institute) started to build together in connection to the new university campus in
Bohunice. The project includes laboratories with first-class equipment and background that
create optimal conditions for basic and applied research in the field of sciences concerning the
living environment as well as the field of advanced materials and technology. The CEITEC
Project was mainly established in order to help the current basic and applied research localised
in the South Moravian Region achieve the top level using suitable mechanisms. Its purpose is to
incorporate activities implemented in the region into the European research area and to open the
region to the world by creating conditions favourable for cooperation with the private sector.
CEITEC has a chance to become an important
European centre of science and education. The
project will contribute to the concentration
of scientific and research capacities in the
Czech Republic and at the same time, it will
reinforce the relation of the Czech science
to top international research institutions
and businesses. High quality relations with
leading international scientific and research
institutions will be established and maintained
within the projects of research cooperation
and joint technological development. More
intense cooperation will bring significant
positive results both for Brno and the South
Moravian Region and the entire European
research area.
The main contribution of the implementation of the CEITEC Project is the unique combination
of sciences concerning the living environment and the inanimate nature. The core of the
project is represented by seven research programmes (Advanced Nanotechnology and
Microtechnology, Advanced Materials, Structural Biology, Genomics and Proteomics of Plant
Systems, Molecular Medicine, Neurosciences, Molecular Veterinary Medicine) that associate
research teams specialising in actual progressive faculties and disciplines. The project generates
multiple synergic effects by the mutual interaction of research programmes and solution of
multidisciplinary questions across the research groups.
The research and development activities of all research programmes and associated groups are
directed towards the fulfilment of four objectives that CEITEC has set. The professional range
of activities necessary to fulfil the set objectives predetermines cooperation of various teams at
different stages of research and development. Another unifying element is the “core facilities”
(large laboratory units) that are available to all workers across the research programmes. The
research teams are international and the aim is to get both domestic and foreign scientists
involved in the activity.
CETOCOEN applies the scientific and research findings of basic research to the evaluation of
the effects of industrial activities on the environment and health of the population and it is a
unique project, also on the global scale.
16
In Europe, there are many registers and databases informing of the condition of the environment,
occurrence of substances in the air and surface waters or increased number of health problems
in the individual states and regions. However, there is no system that would link the available
data and allows searching for the causes of the negative effects of the environment on the health
of population. One of the main objectives of the CETOCOEN Project is to develop such a
system that would provide effective presentation and evaluation of medical and ecological risks
of the contamination of the environment.
The Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
decided to provide a subsidy for the implementation
of the project, both from the national budget and
the European Union resources, amounting to almost
550 million Czech crowns.
FNUSA-ICRC – the International Clinical Research
Centre is an integral part of the Teaching Hospital at
St. Ann’s in Brno, in short FNUSA-ICRC.
It is a scientific research centre of a new generation and also a public centre of top medical
care that concentrates on prevention, timely diagnostics and treatment of cardiovascular and
neurological diseases. The project is a result of a long-standing close cooperation of the experts
at the Teaching Hospital at St. Ann’s in Brno and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
(USA). The authors of the basic conception of ICRC are doc. MUDr. Tomáš Kára, Ph.D. and
Prof. Virend K. Somers, MD, Ph.D.
FNUSA-ICRC represents a multifunctional unit that combines four major parts:
• International scientific research base of a new generation, i.e. European centre of •
•
•
excellence
International centre of education that spreads the latest findings in the field of health
care
Top public medical facility providing clinical, therapeutic and preventive care in the
field of cardiovascular medicine and neurology
Technological cluster for businesses participating in the research and development in
this field
FNUSA-ICRC is built on similar principles as other existing international research centres,
such as International Space Station (ISS), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN,
Switzerland) or International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER, France). In 2006,
the Czech Government incorporated FNUSA-ICRC into priority projects contributing to the
development of knowledge economy in the Czech Republic and pledged financial and nonfinancial support to the project. The contribution from the national budget through the Czech
Ministry of Health should reach the amount of almost two billion Czech crowns (about EUR
83 million / USD 117 million).
In addition to already allocated resources from the national budget, FNUSA-ICRC also applied
for co-financing from the Structural Funds of the European Union within the Operational
Programme Research and Development for Innovation. The project received the maximum
score, within the evaluation of large-scale projects V and VpI, for the proposal of research
programmes (one of the major evaluation criteria) and was thus one of the best evaluated largescale projects. The final decision on the provision of the subsidy in the amount of CZK 2.4 billion
(about EUR 100 million / USD 140 million) was published by the European Commission in June
2011. At present, the construction of the infrastructure at the premises of the Teaching Hospital
at St. Ann’s has been completed and most research projects have already been launched.
17
CONTEMPORARY PERSONALITIES
OF THE SCIENCE WORLD IN BRNO
The City of Brno does not only have a great and long history, but its present is also interesting.
There are several famous personalities in Brno working in the field of natural sciences and we
would like to mention at least two of them.
Prof. Ing. Armin Delong, CSc.
– born on 29 January 1925 in Bartovice, a worldfamous physicist, the founder of electron microscopy
in former Czechoslovakia. After November 1989,
Delong was the deputy chairman of the Czechoslovak
Academy of Sciences and the vice-premier of the
government of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic
for scientific and technological development. During
his work at the Brno University of Technology and
at the Masaryk University, he educated many new
experts who now continue in his work. Professor
Delong is the founder of a company bearing the same
name that deals with the production, development
and sale of electron microscopes and that is one of
the leading companies on the market. In 2010, Prof.
Delong announced that he was trying to develop a
better electron microscope for biological research.
“It will have a better resolution and scientists will
be able to see atoms. Moreover, the current electron
microscopes completely destroy the tissue sample
in less than a second. Our new device will be more
delicate,” the scientist said.
Prof. Jiří Friml
– born on 24 June 1973 in Nedakonice in South
Moravia. He is one of the most distinguished
European scientists in the field of plant genetics.
Friml contributed to the recognition of the crucial
role of PIN proteins in plants – PIN transfers the
plant hormones that are essential for the proper
development of all organs in the plant. Friml studied
at the Masaryk University in Brno and then worked
in the field of plant cultivation at the Max Planck
Institute in Germany. Today, he leads the laboratory
in the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology at the Gent
University. Concurrently, he works in several other
scientific teams. Friml has published more than 80
scientific works, many of them in the most prestigious
professional magazines in the world. He intensively
cooperates with the Institute of Experimental Botany
of the Czech Academy of Sciences and with the
Masaryk University and Mendel University in Brno.
18
GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL
A LEGEND OF BRNO, THE CITY OF SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
19
20 July 1822 was a busy day in Hynčice. A boy named Johann was born in one of the cottages
at the edge of the village towards Odry. His parents, Anton and Rozina Mendel, were extremely
happy. Not only a healthy child was born, but it was a boy! Johann was two years younger than
his sister Veronika and he was a potential help in the hard farming work. Johann’s father had to
work for the demesne and then in his own field. Johann was baptised on 22 July. When he was
five years old, another girl was born in the family.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Silesia
was largely German and the Mendels spoke
German at home, too. Johann was very
bright and he found nature fascinating from
his very childhood. He regularly helped his
father in the garden and at work with the
bees. His father grew many fruit species
and Mendel closely watched grafting
and other fruit-growing jobs. Johann
received elementary education in the local
school (there were up to 80 children in a
classroom). His teacher Tomáš Makyta
taught the pupils about natural history
and other sciences. Priest Jan Schreiber
then taught fruit tree cultivation and also
beekeeping. Mendel was a short but robust
boy. He regularly helped on the farm when
he was growing up.
Mendel’s predestined career of a farmer
was changed by his talent and desire
for education. His parents sent him to a
Piarist school in Lipník nad Bečvou at the
Mendel’s birth record in the registry
recommendation of Tomáš Makyta and
Jan Schreiber. The Piarists were a good guarantee of high quality education. Mendel spent
two years there (1833-1834). He excelled at school and was hard-working and so he went on
studying at a grammar school in Opava. The principal of the grammar school was Augustinian
F. Schaumann with whom Mendel later met in the Brno Monastery. Mendel suddenly found
himself in a large town. He was very good at school and he regularly received gifts of food from
his parents.
However, Mendel’s parents could not afford to support their son for a long time. Their
homestead suffered dearly due to crop failure that lasted for several consecutive periods. And
so Mendel had to take care of himself. He was a star student and so he started tutoring his less
talented classmates. But the difficulties in Mendel’s life continued. In 1838, his father Anton
was hurt while working in the forest and could not continue working anymore. Mendel was
deeply affected and he fell ill the following year. It was the first time that his sensitivity and
insufficient resistance to stress showed. In spite of all the problems, Mendel completed the
grammar school and could follow his dream – studying at university. However, there was still
one task ahead of him. In autumn 1840, Mendel started studying at the Philosophical Institute
in Olomouc. His parents wanted to support him. And so they gave the farm to his older sister
who paid her brother one hundred florins according to the contract and then ten florins every
year of his studies.
20
In Olomouc, Mendel had to learn Czech. The financial resources from his parents were barely
enough to pay for his accommodation. He wanted to start tutoring again but did not manage to
do so due to the lack of friends and recommendations. He fell ill again and had to spend one
year with his parents. Fortunately, Mendel could still complete his studies. However, his less
stable psyche failed him again and again when he had to deal with stressful situations. His
eagerness for study left a deep impression in his sister Terezie who gave her dowry to Johann.
Thanks to the gift, Mendel could complete his studies at the Philosophical Institute.
In 1843, Professor Friedrich Franz recommended Mendel to the Abbot of the Old Brno
Monastery, František Cyril Napp, as the best student to be accepted as a novice. Franz wrote:
“There are two students interested but I can only recommend Mendel who has a solid character
and who is the best one in my subject. He does not have a good command of Czech but he is
prepared to improve his language skills.”
October 1843 was a breakthrough for Mendel. As twenty-one-year-old, he became a novice in
the Augustinian Monastery in Old Brno. Mendel wrote the following in his curriculum vitae
(see below): “He managed to complete both years of philosophy with all his efforts and felt
that he was no longer able to bear such strain.” He added that it “was inevitable for him to
enter into a condition that would relieved him from bitter worries about livelihood and his
situation decided upon his choice.” However, it is clear that he did not join the monastery
merely to provide for his material needs. For a man as eager for knowledge as he was, entering
the priesthood was connected with the opportunity of personal development and dedicating his
life to the Christian tradition.
After he joined the Augustinians, Mendel accepted the monastic name of Gregor that is
traditionally stated as the first name, following by his Christian name. So, his full name sounds
Gregor Johann Mendel.
Members of the Augustinian Order in Brno. Mendel is the second on the left (standing).
21
On 6 August 1847, he was ordained as a priest and appointed the chaplain of the Old Brno
parish. However, he served his first mass with the Dominicans at the St. Michal’s Church. The
Old Brno parish also included the nearby hospital in Pekařská Street. Mendel found the service
of a clergyman in the hospital very exhausting. In January of the following year, he became ill
again; it was most likely a nervous disorder. Abbot Napp wrote the following: “Mendel suffers
from insurmountable anxiety when looking at the ill and suffering that almost transforms into
a dangerous illness.”
This problem and the inability to work with the ill was the first step that led Mendel to his
phenomenal experiments. Gregor was assigned with teaching and research service. This change
in the content of his work was also approved by the Bishop of Brno. In the hospital, Mendel did
not only encounter difficult situations but he also met interesting personalities, particularly head
physician Olexík who led meteorological observations. Mendel took this job over from him. In
1848, Mendel took over an experimental garden in front of the refectory from František Matouš
Klácel, established in 1830, where rare endemic plants were grown. At that time, Mendel also
took care of a small mineralogical collection.
In June of that year, Mendel completed his theological studies. The report proves that he had
great language skills for studying biblical texts. Abbot Napp sent him to teach at the grammar
school in Znojmo in 1949. Mendel taught Greek, Latin, German and mathematics. Since his
teaching abilities were excellent, the management of the school recommended taking a teacher
qualification exam at the Vienna University. The recommendation was based on the ordinance
that a substitute teacher could only become a regular teacher after completing studies at a
university.
In 1850, Mendel failed the exam for
teacher qualification for natural sciences
for the entire grammar school and physics
for elementary level. The main reason
for his failure was the lack of studies at
the university – he only studied at home.
However, he did not renounce education
but his failure actually motivated him to
work harder. In 1851–53, his great dream
became true. Abbot Napp proved to be
an enlightened superior and thus Mendel
could study at the Vienna University thanks
to the financial support of the Monastery
and the Abbot’s testimonial. He studied
mathematics, physics and natural sciences
there.
Mendel also visited seminars on
experimental physics given by famous
physicist Christian Doppler or seminars
of physiology of plants by Franz Unger.
The studies in Vienna had a great effect
on his future scientific work. Thanks to
Doppler, he deepened his mathematical
knowledge and learned the foundations of
mathematical analysis that later became an
integral part of his own scientific method.
22
Mendel’s transcript from the Vienna University
After Mendel returned from his studies in Vienna, he started teaching again. In 1854, he got a
teaching position at the state high school in Jánská Street in Brno. He taught there for fourteen
years until he was elected the Abbot of the Old Brno Monastery. He was recognized as a teacher
with excellent educational methods by both colleagues and students and he was very popular.
Mendel’s epochal research in the field of plant hybridization also falls into this happy teaching
period. When he returned from Vienna, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Mendel had an
extraordinary inner strength and determination to break free from the prevailing thoughts in the
field of scientific research in this field. He recognized and formulated the basic principles of
inheritance based on the results of his experiments with plant hybridization. He picked a simple
plant for his experiments – the garden pea. This plant is ideal for experiments because it is selfpollinating, it propagates through sexual generation and it has invariable traits.
Between 1854 and 1864, Mendel performed his experiments with pea hybridization – from the
first phases when he selected invariable traits to extensive trials with artificial plant fertilization
and subsequent data processing. At that time, Mendel took the teacher qualification exam in
Vienna for the second time. Unfortunately, he collapsed, failed and became seriously ill. He
continued in his experiments despite the illness.
Mendel was a personality recognized in the issue of plant cultivation and in 1855 he was named
a member of the natural sciences section of the Moravian and Silesian Society for Development
of Ploughing, Natural Sciences and National History and Geography in Brno. He was the first
one to discover and observe a particular regularity in traits during plant cross-breeding and was
able to express it mathematically. Based on his long-lasting observations (eight years) and their
subsequent evaluations, he wrote “Experiments on Plant Hybridization”.
Mendel regularly travelled around Moravia
and he particularly visited estates that
belonged to the Augustinians (e.g. in Šardice
and Hvězdlice). He took the longest trip in
1862 when he travelled to London to see a
great farming exhibition.
On 8 February and 8 March 1865, Mendel
presented his experiments with garden pea
hybridization and the related principles of
inheritance to the members of the Scientific
Society in Brno. A year later, his presentation
was published in the magazine of the Scientific
Society and was sent to many important people
at home and abroad. The author received 40
copies of his work.
G. J. Mendel was ahead of his time with
his brilliant conclusions. The results of the
many years’ of his research were not quite
understood by the scientists then and thus the
unique evidence of scientific research was
forgotten for some time.
Mendel’s microscope
23
In 1866–1870, Mendel exchanged letters with Carl Nägeli, a recognized capacity in the field
of plant hybridization. 13 letters were found, 10 by Mendel and three by Nägeli. When Mendel
completed his work with pea, he continued studying sorbaria. However, the hybridization
results did not correspond with his hypotheses. In 1869, Mendel suffered from an eye disease
that prevented him from working with plants. It was most likely a consequence of his previous
work when he had to be remove anthers from the peas and transfer pollen to the stigma.
On 30 March 1868, Mendel was elected the Abbot and replaced Abbot Napp who died in 1867.
In the same year, Mendel became a founding member of the Meteorological Society. All
members of the order in the monastery voted for the Abbot. Allegedly, all but one vote was
for Mendel. Mendel apparently voted against his election. He became a very valued church
personality after his election. On 12 July 1869, he served a great pontifical mass at Velehrad.
A letter by Carl Nägeli to Mendel
Beekeeping was a great hobby of Mendel’s. Therefore, he had a beehive built at the premises of the
Augustinian monastery in 1871. A year before that he became a member of a beekeeping society.
He bred various bee species in the Abbey and tried to cross-breed them. However, he was not very
successful with his experiments. In spite of that the new Abbot of the Augustinian monastery was a
great beekeeper and his bees served as a model to many Moravian beekeepers.
The work of Abbot Gregor Mendel for the society was acknowledged by the Emperor in 1872 that
awarded him the Imperial Austrian Franz Joseph Order for his merits in the public life and in the
church. It was one of the five levels of Franz Joseph Order. We could compare it to the knightly order
for civil and clerical personalities.
In 1874, a new law increasing the tax levies on monasteries was passed. Mendel as an abbot became
a tireless fighter against this law. He could not come to terms with the tax that amounted to 7,330
florins that the monastery was to pay (he proposed two thousand florins). The fight against this law
cost him a lot of effort and was exhausting for Mendel. The position of an abbot drew Mendel away
from science and research.
24
However, he gained many important positions outside the monastery as well. For example,
when the director of the mortgage bank, where Mendel acted as deputy director, Rudolf Otto
died in 1881, Mendel was appointed the new director. The position brought a higher income and
so Mendel could support his three nephews in their studies.
Mendel was concurrently a member of the Meteorological Society, Pomological Association,
Moravian-Silesian Society for Development of Ploughing, Natural Sciences and National
History and Geography and a member of the Scientific Society in Brno, Zoological Botanical
Society, an honourable member of the Fire Brigade in Hynčice (for a donation for the
construction of a fire station). On 6 January 1884, he died of a kidney infection at the age of
62. He was buried in an Augustinian grave at the central cemetery in Brno three days later.
Leoš Janáček conducted the requiem for the deceased Abbot Gregor Johann Mendel in the
church of the Old Brno Monastery.
25
MENDEL ABOUT HIMSELF
(Curriculum Vitae written by Mendel at the occasion of exams at the Vienna University)
Dear meritorious Imperial and Royal Examination Committee,
he hereby submits a faithfully written brief outline of his life according to the ordinance by the
Ministry of Culture and Education.
He was born in Hynčice in Silesia in 1822 where his father owned a small farm. After completing
elementary education at a local village school and later at a Piarist vocational school in Lipník,
he was accepted to the refresher grammar class at the imperial and royal grammar school
ˇ
in Opava. Four years later, his parents could no longer support his studies due to several
consecutive accidents and the faithfully hereby undersigned, only 16 years old at that time,
found himself in a grave situation when he had to take care of himself. Therefore, he started
visiting a course for future and private teachers at a regional school in Opava and since he
was recommended as the best after he had passed the qualification exam, he managed to earn
enough during his studies of humanities through private tutoring to live a frugal life.
In 1840, as soon as he graduated from the grammar school, he started to raise funds to continue
in his studies. Therefore, he repeatedly offered his tutoring services in Olomouc but his efforts
were unsuccessful due to the lack of friends and recommendations. The grieve from disappointed
hopes and oppressive and sad future prospects affected him so cruelly that he fell ill and had to
spend a year with his parents to recover.
In the following year, the faithfully undersigned was able to achieve the desired and he could
cover at least the most essential costs by occasional tutoring in Olomouc and could thus
continue in his studies. With utmost efforts he managed to complete two years of philosophical
studies. The faithfully undersigned felt that he could no longer bear such a burden and thus,
after completing the philosophical studies, he decided to join an order that would break him
free from the bitter worries about livelihood. His situation decided upon his choice. He applied
to and was accepted to the Augustinian Monastery of St. Thomas in Old Brno in 1843.
His material situation completely changed by this step. Thanks to the peace of mind, so favourable
for studies, of his physical existence, the faithfully undersigned gained back his courage and
strength to study the prescribed subjects for the given examination year with a great joy and
love. In his free time, he took care of a small botanical and mineralogical collection available
in the monastery. His passion for natural sciences grew with the opportunities he found to
learn about it. Even though he lacked oral instructions and the autodidactic method, especially
in natural sciences, is extremely difficult and leads slowly to the goal, he found the studies of
nature so precious that he decided not to be afraid of any endeavour and to fill in the missing
gaps among practically experienced men through self-instruction.
In 1846, he attended seminars on the economy, fruit-growing and viniculture at the Philosophical
Institute in Brno.
26
Later in 1848, after completing theological studies, the faithfully undersigned received an
approval from his highly valuable prelate to prepare himself for the philosophical viva voce.
When he decided to take the exam in the following year, he was offered a position of a substitute
teacher at the imperial and royal grammar school in Znojmo and he followed this call with
pleasure. From the very beginning of his teaching work, he strived to inform his students
of the assigned subjects in a simple and comprehensible way and he believed that he would
succeed with regard to the fact that he had been given plenty opportunities through the potential
contribution of students during his private tutoring through which he earned his living for four
years and he gained a lot of experience through various levels of youth understanding.
The faithfully undersigned believes that this brief summary describes his life history. His meagre
youth prematurely taught him about the most serious aspects of life and taught him to work. He
touchingly used the fruits of the secured economy but his wish to be able to earn his living (to
deserve to earn his living) still remains alive within him.
The faithfully undersigned would consider himself very happy if the meritorious Imperial and
Royal Examination Committee accommodated his request and allowed him to achieve his
wish.
He would not be afraid of any demands and sacrifice to meet his liabilities timely.
Mendel’s notes on experiments with plants
27
MENDEL AND BEEKEEPING
Mendel learned about the basics of beekeeping from his father Anton who owned beehives
in Hynčice. Mendel found ideal conditions for this great hobby of his in the garden of the
Abbey. In 1854, a beekeeping division of the Moravian and Silesian Society for Development
of Ploughing, Natural Sciences and National History and Geography was established in Brno.
This institution was later transformed into the Moravian Association of Beekeepers between
1868 and 1869. F. X. Žiwanský was one of the prominent chairmen who introduced Gregor
Mendel to the association in 1870.
Mendel’s excellent knowledge and breeding skills showed in 1871 when he became the first
vice-chairman of the association. He was also a very active member who contributed to the
operation and functioning of the association greatly (he paid 20 florins as one of few). In 1871,
he had a bee house with a small study built according to his own designs in the Abbey garden.
This building designed to host 15 beehives has been preserved. He used to have up to 50 bee
colonies there during his most active beekeeping period.
We only know about Mendel’s beekeeping (apart from the construction of the bee house) thanks
to short notes recorded in the magazine called the Bee of Brno (Včela brněnská) that provide
information, among others, about his bitter experience with a dangerous bee disease – European
Foul Brood. Mendel had to destroy all his bee colonies and he recommended that each beekeeper
did the same.
Mendel was striving for controlled cross-breeding of bees with the effort to achieve better traits
in bee colonies (e.g. higher honey production). However, his experiments were not successful
as he did not know the exact method of reproduction of bees at that time – that the queen flies
high in the air followed by drones (no beekeeper had this information at that time).
He also tried different methods of hibernation of bee colonies and described those methods
exactly. Furthermore, he also worked on simplifying the beehive and improving the possibilities
of manipulation inside the beehive. He was looking for new solutions that would advance
beekeeping forward; which is what he did in all other areas of his interest. He was actively
involved in beekeeping until 1878 when he became the Abbot and did not have as much time
for his hobbies. In the same year, he also became an honourable member of the Association of
Beekeepers.
Mendel’s bee house at the premises of the Old Brno Abbey
28
Magazine Včela brněnská
29
MENDEL – THE FARMER
In 1870, Gregor Mendel was elected a member of the committee of the Moravian and Silesian
Society for Development of Ploughing. A year ago, he was also appointed together with P.
Olexík as the commissar of the association after passing fruit-growing exams. He held this
function until the end of his life. In 1882, he was nominated for the position of the chairman but
he rejected the nomination for medical reasons.
Formally, Mendel was a member of all expert
divisions of the Economic Association.
However, he was most active in the field of
the Association of Gardeners and Beekeepers.
Shortly after his appointment for the
committee of the Economic Association,
he started working in the committee of the
regional assembly for allocation of financial
subsidies for the development of agriculture.
He paid a lot of attention to publishing
reports on new agricultural literature and to
reviewing contributions to be published in the
magazine of the Economic Association. He
also initiated exhibitions of seeds and farming
products in the museum and participated in the
discussions concerning the occurrence of pests
or infections of crops. He was also involved in
the decision-making regarding awards to the
members of the association for their merit in
the development of agriculture.
A medal of the Pomological Society
Mendel also applied his professional knowledge in the committee of the regional assembly for
agricultural taxes. The governor appreciated Mendel’s knowledge of the local situation and
evaluation of soil quality.
When the government introduced statistical reports on the situation of the agricultural production
in 1872, Mendel repeatedly requested higher amounts during the allocation of the financial
subsidy stating that the statistical evaluation had to be prepared in a way that would ensure
reliability of the data. He knew the significance of statistical estimates thanks to his research of
plant hybridization.
In April 1867, Mendel described a hybrid form of the garden pea linking four pairs of traits
in a letter to C. Nägeli. He found a form in the lineage that had distinguished taste properties
and was stable in the following generations. Therefore, he grew this variety in the vegetable
patch of the Abbey garden. It was the first species of a plant cultivated according to theoretical
assumption. He also described the inherited basis of the required traits of this species using
genetic terminology.
In 1863, Mendel became a member of the Fruit, Wine and Gardening Society and he became
a member of the committee five years later. Mendel was involved in the organization of
exhibitions of fruit and flowers. He announced prizes for the cultivation of new species and
he also exhibited new species. Mendel cultivated fruit trees, such as apple trees. He included
12 parental and 17 pollen species in his project and he considered combinations to create new
species. He strived to improve the production and taste qualities by combining selected traits of
the parental forms. Mendel cultivated fruit trees all his life.
30
It was not a coincidence that he knew about cultivation of plants much more than the gardeners
at that time. The numerous books of the Old Brno Abbey show that the studied the latest fruitgrowing literature and that he promptly applied his theoretical findings of the inheritance of
traits that he could manipulate.
After Mendel died, a retrospect in the Czech insert of the magazine of the Economic Association
in 1884 stated that “all Mendel’s studies also gained practical significance. Father Mendel did
not only use empty words, he also got actively engaged in the agricultural situation in Moravia
at any occasion and he always paid a lot of attention to it.”
Mendel’s statue in the garden of the Old Brno Abbey
31
MENDEL – THE METEOROLOGIST
Besides all his other hobbies, Gregor Johann Mendel was also fond of meteorology. He
discovered meteorology during his studies of the physics; he could not possibly miss this
subject as Doppler was his teacher. However, his role model was MUDr. Pavel Olexík – the
head physician in St. Ann’s Hospital on Pekařská Street near the Abbey.
Olexík started his readings at
St. Ann’s in 1848 and continued
until July 1878. Mendel took
over in August 1878. Dr.
Olexík used instruments of the
highest quality at that time:
Kappeller’s
psychrometer
to measure temperature and
Fortin’s barometer to measure
air pressure. Mendel also later
used those instruments, when he
took after Dr. Olexík’s role after
his decease.
Mendel’s first meteorological
work was written in 1862
under the title “Bemerkungen
zu der graphisch-tabellarischen
Übersicht der meteorologische
Verhaltnisse von Brünn” (Notes
on the Graphic and Tabular
Overview of Meteorological
Situation in Brno). It was a brief
description of readings with
graphs and charts that Olexík did
in 1848−1862.
In 1863−1866 and in 1869,
Mendel
prepared
and
published
“Meteorologische
Beobachtungen aus Mähren
und Schlesien” (Meteorological
Observations from Moravia and
Silesia).
From 1878, he performed
observations at a station in the
Abbey for the Imperial and Royal
Central Institute of Meteorology
and Geodynamics in Vienna.
32
We know very well where Mendel placed his reading devices thanks to a description by a clerk
of the Imperial and Royal Central Institute, J. Liznar: “The thermometers were attached to the
north side of the wing parallel to the church on the first floor. This wing and two other wings
create a rectangular square with the church whose longer side (east-west) is 30 to 35 meters
long and the shorter side (north-south) is about 25 meters long. The maximum and minimum
thermometer was attached in the “bee garden” on a pillar of the gazebo facing north and it was
well exposed, but there are quite steep hills in the north direction in the vicinity of the Abbey.
The rain gauge was placed in the “prelate garden” with a catchment surface at the height of
one meter above the surface. The direction of the wind was monitored according to the smoke
of numerous visible chimneys (also at Špilberk).”
Mendel recorded his readings at 6
a.m., 2 p.m. and 10 p.m., just like
Olexík used to do. From January
1879, he took and recorded
temperatures at 7 a.m., 2 p.m.
and 9 p.m. This was not due to
his comfort but to harmonize his
readings with the recommendation
of the International Meteorological
Organization. Mendel also tried to
determine the altitude of the Abbey
for a long time. He originally stated
225 meters above the sea level, later
198 meters and finally 221 meters
from the end of 1881 when he
completed his observations. Today,
you can check the true value with
a GPS.
The last reading report filled in by
Mendel comes from July 1883.
He was ill and thus he could no
longer observe and take readings
and so clergyman Leo Ledwina
performed the measurements from
August to November. There are no
records for December of that year.
In January 1884, Alfred Lorenz, an
imperial and royal chief engineer
started taking measurements in
Brno.
Mendel meticulously recorded
everything in graphs and charts. In
addition to weather, he also focused
on the determination of the level of
underground water in the well, the
amount of ozone in the air and he
also watched solar spots. He paid
a lot of attention to solar spots as
he assumed that they had a great
effect on the weather.
33
The interest of the Old Brno Abbot in extraordinary meteorological phenomena is also proven
by a professional article “Die Windhose vom 13. October 1870” (The Windstorm of 13 October
1870), which was preceded by Mendel’s lecture for the Brno Scientific Society. Mendel
described a windstorm of 13 October 1870 that damaged the Abbey and a part of Brno and he
was the first one in the world to scientifically describe the occurrence of a whirlwind (tornado).
He later wrote contributions “Regenfall und Gewitter zu Brünn in Juni 1879” (Downpour and
Storm in Brno in June 1879) and “Gewitter in Brünn und Blansko am 15. August 1882” (Storm
in Brno and Blansko on 15 August 1882).
Mendel recorded his meteorological findings for five years and one month. He loved
meteorology that allowed him to express his meticulousness, exact scientific work and
excellent knowledge of nature.
Mendel’s meteorological gauges and devices (p. 32–34)
34
MENDEL’S DISCOVERY
Mendel became the legend of the Brno science world thanks to his work “Experiments with Plant
Hybridization”. It is a small piece of work when it comes to the number of pages, but a great
piece of work thanks to innovation and the scope of the systematic effort that the scientist used
to achieve his briefly formulated conclusions. He was goal-oriented and probably theoretically
prepared his experiment shortly after his unsuccessful effort to pass the teacher qualification
exam at the Vienna University. Mendel was influenced by physics and mathematics and he
applied its principles in botany.
He started with his experiments in 1854 and continued for almost ten years. He cultivated
thousands of pea plants in the garden and greenhouse in the Abbey and observed the differences
in selected traits. The selection of garden pea was more than lucky. Garden pea is easy to
cultivate, also thanks to the fact that the petals of its flower are closed in which prevents
contamination with foreign pollen. He did not study the entire plant as his colleagues; he only
picked seven traits, such as the colour of the flower, the size of the plant and the colour of the
seeds. Such traits always had only two possible versions.
Mendel defined three principles of inheritance:
1.The principle of dominance – this principle says that only one allele may overlap the
presence of another allele in a heterozygous specimen (there are two different forms of gene
in a specimen)
2.The principle of segregation – this principle says that two alleles are separated during the
formation of the gametes in a heterozygous specimen
3.The principle of independent combination – the alleles of different genes are combined
independent of each other
Summary of Mendel’s discoveries:
–Mendel was the first one to confirm that not traits, but dispositions (genes) are inherited.
–Mendel statistically processed the monitored phenomena and compared them to
estimated results.
–He prepared the basic methodology of the study of inheritance that is still used for
plant and animal cross-breeding.
35
MONOHYBRID CROSS: THE PRINCIPLE OF DOMINANCE AND THE PRINCIPLE
OF SEGREGATION
The first experiment that Mendel performed concerned the size of the pea plant. He was interested
in the transfer of a trait of the size of the plant in the following generations. He crossed tall
plants with short plants, both tall paternal and short maternal and vice versa. The crossbreeding
was very difficult because he had to transfer the pollen from the paternal plant to the maternal
one. One had to be very skilful in manipulation with the flower and had to have a good sight. He
obtained seeds that he planted the following year in the garden and the greenhouse at the Abbey.
The plants that grew from those seeds were always tall. Mendel found it very surprising because
it seemed that the trait of a short plant disappeared. To find out what was going on, Mendel let
the plants self-pollinate.
There were suddenly both short and tall plants in the second generation. Mendel examined a
large sample, as the quantity of the cultivated plants shows: there were more than one thousand of
them. The ratio of short and tall plants was 3:1 in favour of tall. Mendel’s thought was that there
is a hidden inheritance trait in the plant (the factor for short growth) that was overlapped by the
stronger trait in the first generation (the factor for tall growth). Mendel called the characteristics
of the factor dominant (stronger, expressed) and recessive (a trait that can be overlapped with
a stronger one).
Mendel brilliantly predicted that the traits are common and that they separate (segregate) during
reproduction. Mendel studied several traits individually. This principle is called monohybrid
cross – when only one trait is monitored (size of the plant, colour of the flower...).
36
The 3:1 ratio was always confirmed. Mendel did not know that the factors he named were genes
(the term “gene” was not used until many years later). The individual forms, i.e. dominant
or recessive, are called alleles – alternative forms of the gene. All of that led Mendel to the
conclusion that genes must exist in pairs. Mendel also applied mathematics and combinatorial
analysis in his speculations. To understand this issue better, he created a new and unique method
of depicting the phenomena. He marked the dominant form of the gene with a capital letter and
the recessive form with a lower case. This marking is still used to this day. For example, d (from
dwarfness) is used for the size of the plant. A tall plan is thus marked as DD, short one as dd.
This “internal” setting is called a genotype and the appearance that this setting represents (tall
or short) is called a phenotype.
DIHYBRID CROSS: THE PRINCIPLE OF INDEPENDENT COMBINATION
Mendel also performed experiments with plants that differed in two traits. He crossed plants
with yellow and round seeds with plants with green and square seeds. He was trying to determine
whether two traits of the seed – colour and shape – are inherited independently of each other.
All seeds were always yellow and round and so those are the dominant alleles for the traits.
Mendel planted the seeds and let them self-pollinate. Then
he sorted the seeds according to the colour and shape and
counted them. This represented all possible combinations
of colour and shape. Two classes – yellow round seeds
and green square seeds – resembled the parental versions.
Other two classes – green round seeds and yellow square
seeds – represent new combinations of traits. The four
classes occurred in the approximate ratio of 9 (yellow,
round): 3 (green, round): 3 (yellow, square): 1 (green,
square). According to Mendel’s intellectual thinking, those
numerical relations had a simple explanation: each trait was
dependent on one gene segregating two alleles and the two
genes were inherited independently. Let’s analyse the results
by methods that Mendel used. We will mark each gene with
a letter: small case for the recessive allele and capital letter
for the dominant allele. For the colour gene we have alleles
g (green) and G (yellow) and for the shape gene we have
allele w (square) and W (round). The parental versions that
did not break had to be double-homozygous: the plants with
yellow round seeds were GG WW, the plants with green
square seeds were gg ww.
The result of this analysis is based on two estimates: (1)
the alleles segregate in each gene, (2) the segregation is
independent. The second estimate expresses that there is no
connection or relation between the segregation of two genes.
For example, the gamete that received allele W during the
shape gene segregation can receive allele G or g during the
colour gene segregation with the same probability.
Mendel performed similar experiments with other trait
combinations and in all cases he observed that genes
segregated independently. The results of his experiments
led him to the conclusion of the third key principle.
37
MENDEL’S MANUSCRIPT
The story of Mendel’s manuscript “Experiments with Plant Hybridization” was as complicated
as his life story. This fundamental work of science is a unique document of human ingeniousness
and it is one of the gems of the humankind, comparable to the works of Charles Darwin, Isaac
Newton and others. The manuscript was a compilation of Mendel’s seminars from 8 February
and 8 March 1865. It was published a year later. After Mendel died, it was found in a rubbish
bin. Fortunately, someone took it out and returned it to the library.
The hard times came during WWII and after the war. The manuscript was taken away from the
monastery and hidden with the Augustinians. They were worried that it would be destroyed by
the Communists after the coup d’état. And their worries were well-founded: the nationalization
was followed by abolishment of monasteries. The Brno Augustinians had to leave the Old Brno
Abbey in 1953. The manuscript was then passed on among the Augustinians. In 1987, it arrived
in Germany where the Augustinians in Stuttgart took it over.
One of them was a distant relative of G. J. Mendel. At the end of 1990s, he requested that
the manuscript be returned to Brno as it is the only place where it legitimately belongs. Each
member of the order promises upon admission that whatever he creates shall be created for the
order and for the place where he lives. And Mendel lived in the Old Brno Abbey. However,
the German counterparty did not honour this rule and so long negotiations started, leading to a
lawsuit. The counterparty tried to declare Mendel’s manuscript a German national heritage. If
that happened, it would not be possible to place the manuscript in Brno.
However, that did not happen and the manuscript returned to the Abbey where it was created
after 25 years, thanks to the efforts of Abbot Lukáš Evžen Martinec and the Czech Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
G. J. Mendel’s abbot seal
38
WHEN SCIENCE MEETS FAITH
The encounter of science with faith that Mendel presents has been discussed from the very
beginning of defining the principles of inheritance. The conflict of those two worlds regularly
appears in literature and professional symposiums. Mendel’s discovery is similar to Darwin’s
theory. They both came from deeply religious persons who considered the results of their
research to be a better understanding of God’s plan.
Mendel had no doubts whether or not the principles of inheritance were in compliance with
his faith. He only looked into objective facts and wanted to present the best proof of God’s
geniality. His all life was linked with one desire – to be helpful for people and the society. When
working with inheritance, Mendel was mainly interested in helping breeders cultivate plants or
animals with suitable qualities, which was something people had been doing for thousands of
years.
The effort to help beekeepers was to result in the breeding of bees without stingers (in which
Mendel succeeded but the bees were not competitive for our environment). His meteorological
observations were directed to help farmers predict weather. We could surely find many other
examples of Mendel’s effort to serve the society.
Coat-of-arms of Abbot G. J. Mendel
39
FROM MENDEL’S TIME TO THE PRESENT
Mendel’s three simple formulas were soon forgotten. However, Mendel was aware of the
importance of his work and he said “my time is yet to come”. And that really happened, in
1900, 12 years after his death and 35 years after the lectures during which he explained his
experiments with the garden pea to the professional public.
Three scientists follow Mendel’s work independently of one another: Hugo de Vries, Eric
von Tschermak and Carl Correns. Later on, William Bateson known as the father of the term
“genetics” joined them. We should not forget that genetics is not only a very modern field of
science, but also a very dynamic one. It has been 59 years since James Watson and Francis Crick
(1953) discovered the structure of the DNA model and only 9 years since the human genome
was read (2003). Genetics is now involved in all biological sciences and affects us more than
we think. And all of that started with an Augustinian from Brno.
Mendel has joined the ranks of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He is often compared
to Charles Darwin and his significance is often placed at the level of scientists such as Isaac
Newton, Albert Einstein and many others. His importance and the significance of his legacy
are also reflected by his position and work in educational programmes. The rediscovery and
understanding of Mendel in the Czech Republic was, however, much more complicated than in
any other country due to the war and the communist coup d’état. Mendel was acknowledged and
recognized at the beginning of the 20th century. The whole world learned about his experiments
and their results and tried to develop them on one side and prove their invalidity on the other
side. Therefore, there were several statements on the impossibility of performing so many
experiments during the 20th century.
The beginning of the 20th century was a period when first biographic publications about
Mendel’s life were written. Hugo Iltis played an important role in this area. He stood at the birth
of the first Mendel’s museum at the premises of the Old Brno Monastery and he also took care
of first Mendel’s biographic publications. All other biographers proceeded from Iltis’s work.
Thanks to Hugo Iltis, many objects related to the life of Mendel were also sent to the U.S. In
spite of being German, Iltis was a convinced anti-Nazi and had to emigrate when Hitler came to
power. He did not only take his family with him, but also valuable materials related to Mendel’s
life. In the fifties, he donated his collection to the archive of the University of Illinois.
WWII also affected Mendel’s work. The German propaganda that looked for all possible ways to
show the superiority of the Aryan race also included Mendel’s teachings and eugenics. After the
war when Mendel’s teachings and genetics was standardly taught all over the world, there was
a great ban on Mendel in Czechoslovakia. Mendel was replaced with Michurin and Lysenko.
Mendel was banned as an alleged “pseudo-scientist”, which was also due to the fact that he was
an Augustinian and of a German origin.
To understand the perception of genetics in the Soviet Union, we need to go back to the interwar
period. In 1930s, there were failures in the deliveries of animal and plant production in USSR.
The scientists pointed out that it would not be possible to cultivate new and better species earlier
than in 10 or 12 years. In 1935, however, agronomist T. D. Lysenko claimed at the conference
regarding the problems of agriculture in Moscow (Stalin also attended) that he would cultivate
new species by crossbreeding other species in a short time.
40
He referred to the results of an excellent fruit grower and cultivator, I. V. Michurin. Stalin
was very enthusiastic about Lysenko’s statement, which led to persecution and liquidation of
geneticists in the Soviet Union. How difficult life was for geneticists in USSR is also shown
by the fact that there was an international conference on genetics planned in Moscow in 1938
where one of the major items on the agenda was to condemn the abuse of genetics in the racist
ideology: the conference was banned and when it took place a year later, some top Russian
scientists could not participate due to a ban by the Soviet authorities.
After the war, there was a political dogma caused by Lysenko’s opinions that intensified the
perception of genetics as a dangerous ideological trend. That was confirmed at a conference
in 1948 when Stalin harshly condemned genetics and expressed his support of Lysenko. In
Czechoslovakia, there were many supporters as well as opponents to those trends. One of the
geneticists who did not accept the biased Soviet theories was Prof. Jaroslav Kříženecký. He lost
his job and was imprisoned for his opinions and lessons on modern genetics.
In the fifties, the role of Mendel’s work and new aspects leading to further results were
recognized by many western countries. The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc were completely
cut off from such influences; however, changes were gradually taking over after Stalin died.
At the beginning of 1960s, those countries also acknowledged Mendel’s work. In 1962,
Mendelianum managed by Prof. Jaroslav Kříženecký and Dr. Vítězslav Orel was founded in
Brno as a part of the Moravian Museum. It was based in the Old Brno Monastery and thanks
to the initiative of both scientists there was an international conference under the auspices
of UNESCO in 1965, attended by scientists from all over the world. Unfortunately, Prof.
Kříženecký died in 1964. Thanks to Mendelianum, many publications about Mendel and his
work and legacy were published.
In 1999, Mendelianum moved from the Abbey and opened a new exposition in the building
of the Public Defender of Rights. Three years later, VFG (Vereinigung zur Förderung
der Genomfgorschung) – a Viennese association involved in the human genome research
entered the Abbey to open a new exposition dedicated to Mendel’s work. The exposition was
architectonically designed by Eva Jiřičná. In 2007, the association ended its activities in Brno
and offered the premises to Brno universities. The Masaryk University was the only one to
express interest and in April 2007 the university opened the Mendel Museum there which takes
care of both Mendel’s legacy and the promotion of science at the Masaryk University.
The scientist’s glasses are one of the original exhibits in the Mendel Museum in Old Brno
41
BEARING MENDEL’S NAME
MU Mendel Museum – the museum established by the Masaryk University is the only
place that presents original objects related to Mendel’s life. The exposition is located at the
premises of the Abbey in Old Brno where Mendel lived and worked.
(www.mendelmuseum.muni.cz)
From the exposition in the Mendel Museum
Mendel University – the oldest Czech agricultural and forestry university. It has five faculties
- Agronomy, Forestry and Wood Technology, Business and Economics, Horticulture and the
Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies. About 10.5 thousand students
study there.
(www.mendelu.cz)
Johann Gregor Mendel Czech Antarctic Station – a Czech research polar station located on
the James Ross Island in Antarctica. The station was established by the Masaryk University
with the support of many other institutions (e.g. Czech Geological Service). The station was
made in the Czech Republic and placed at the Antarctica coastline in 2005. About 15 to 20
scientists stay there during the season.
(www.polar.sci.muni.cz)
Mendeleum – the oldest research institution that bears Mendel’s name. In 2012, it celebrated
the 100th anniversary of its foundation. It was founded by one of the discoverers of Mendel’s
work, Carl von Tschermak.
(www.mendelu.cz)
42
Mendelianum – a department of the Moravian Museum that deals with the study of the history
of biological sciences. It was founded in 1962. At present, a new exposition at the premises
of the Bishop’s Courtyard is being prepared; it will focus on disclosing the issue of science
and research in the field of genetics and molecular biology in relation to the latest findings.
The exposition is going to be placed in the Bishop’s Courtyard for historic relations. The
Moravian Museum is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in Europe and it is today the only
continually existing professional institution in the world, in whose development and research
programme Gregor Johann Mendel was actively involved. He worked in several professional
sections of the former Economic Association that used to have headquarters in the Bishop’s
Courtyard. The reconstructed buildings will also include the historic meeting hall of Franciscea
and the Economic Chamber where Mendel worked for many years. The construction of the new
Mendelianum – an attractive world of genetics – is to be completed in October 2014.
(www.mzm.cz)
Mendel’s Bee Research Association – the association that deals with the research of
beekeeping was established in Brno in February 2011. It associates workers of universities,
other institutions and advanced beekeepers. The association focuses on the development of
beekeeping as a field of science, particularly in the fields of breeding, animal husbandry and
veterinary care, research and expert activity in the field of apiology, as well as education in the
field of apiology. The priority is to search for and verify alternative methods of beekeeping with
focus on the minimization of the use of medicines against the parasitic mite Varroa Destructor
with the aim of their complete withdrawal.
(www.msvv.cz)
Mendel Grammar School in Opava – it is a secondary educational facility that follows the
tradition of the Czech grammar school established in Opava in 1883. The school professes
Mendel’s legacy, its curriculum mainly focuses on natural sciences, the school cooperates with
the Palacký University in Olomouc, Masaryk University and Mendel University. However,
Mendel studied at a German grammar school in Opava – the building is now used by the
Regional Archive in Opava.
(www.mgo.opava.cz)
J. G. Mendel Grammar School – a private grammar school at the Mendel’s Square in Brno,
near the monastery where Mendel used to work.
(www.skolskykomplex.cz/jgm)
43
MENDEL’S TOPOGRAPHY
Hynčice House No. 69 in Hynčice where Gregor Johann Mendel was born (nowadays a part of Vražné
in the Moravian-Silesian Region) is located at the end of the village towards Bělotín. It opened
to the public with a small exposition in 1965.
In 2007, the complete reconstruction of the homestead was completed and the Visitor’s Centre
of the Rural Region of Moravské Kravařsko was built there. The homestead also includes a
museum exposition about the native land, personality and work of G. J. Mendel as well as about
the present – the impact of his discoveries in genetics on modern and future cultivation. Nearby
the house, there is a fire station, the reconstruction of which Mendel once contributed to, and
an old school he used to go to. There is a car park for passenger cars and buses and the house
provide accommodation for about 45 people.
Contact: tel. 775 681 490, 603 243 840, 556 730 105;
e–mail: [email protected]; www.vrazne.cz;
Opening hours: Mon – Fri 8:00 – 15:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 16:00.
Tours are also possible outside the opening hours by appointment.
St. Peter’s and Paul’s Church – built between 1789 and 1799. Mendel was baptized there on
22 July 1822. The object is opened during masses.
44
Lipník nad Bečvou
The building of the former Piarist College where Gregor Mendel studied for some time now
belongs to the City of Lipník nad Bečvou. A part of the building has been reconstructed for
the needs of the municipal office. The remaining part is in a dismal condition. A part of the
object is occupied by tenants. It is not possible to visit the building but there is a plaque on the
facade of the house that commemorates Mendel’s school years. The former Piarist College was
established in 1634 by the Bishop of Olomouc, Cardinal František Dietrichstein. The buildings
were built in two stages between 1660 and 1674 according to a design provided probably by
G. P. Tencall. The college was abolished in 1884.
Opava
The former German grammar school where Gregor Johann Mendel studied is now used by
the Regional Archive in Opava. The archiving institution started in 1849 when the Silesian
public convent commissioned Franz Tiller to organize archive funds – particularly documents
of the Opava and Krnov princedoms. A large part of the archives was destroyed during the
bombing of spring 1945, during which the highly valuable old grammar school library with
medieval and early modern manuscripts burnt down. The Mendel Grammar School of Opava,
following the traditions of the Czech secondary grammar school established in 1883, is now
located in a different part of the town. The building is not open to the public.
Olomouc
The building of the Philosophical Institute where Mendel studied is now the seat of the
Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology at the Palacký University in Olomouc. The
theological faculty that was re-established in 1990 was renamed Sts Cyril and Methodius
Faculty of Theology in 1992. In addition to the preparation of theologians for their priesthood,
there are also lay students at the faculty. The faculty also offers a master programme of
Christian Education and other study programmes in cooperation with the Faculty of
Education, mostly language studies combined with Christian education. The total number
of students was 1,378 in the academic year 2011/12. There is a commemorative plaque on
the building.
Brno
Old Brno Abbey – an Augustinian monastery in Old Brno. Augustinians settled in Brno in
1346. The foundation charter for the Brno monastery was published by Moravian Margrave
Jan Jindřich Lucemburský six years later. The foundation of the monastery was confirmed by
the Pope in 1356 and since Brno belonged to the administration of the Olomouc diocese, the
Bishop of Olomouc granted his approval with the construction of the monastery in the place
selected by the Moravian Margrave. The monastery was originally established in front of the
Brno walls near the Rýnská Gate (leading to the current Běhounská Street).
The Brno Augustinians focused on pastoral care, missionary, educational and scientific activity.
In 1783, they had to move to the cloister established by Eliška Rejčka in the 14th century after
the Cistercian order was abolished in Old Brno. The Abbey also includes a basilica minor, a title
granted by Pope John Paul II. The Augustinians left an indelible mark in Brno. Many places in
Brno bear names of famous Augustinians: Šilingr’s Square, Křížkovský’s or Klácel’s Street or
Mendel’s Square. The building is accessible with a tour by the Mendel Museum.
45
St. Ann’s Hospital Anny – today a teaching hospital, it played a fundamental role in Mendel’s
life. After he completed his theological studies, he started working as a chaplain at the Roman
Catholic parish in Old Brno in 1848 and this work also included the obligation to visit the ill
and the dying in the hospital. However, Mendel found this job very stressful and collapsed.
Abbot Napp then directed Mendel towards education and teaching. But Mendel kept in touch
with some physicians, such as the head physician, Pavel Olexík, who monitored the occurrence
of illnesses in relation to changes in the weather, and who was, just like Mendel, interested in
meteorology. Mendel inherited a set of meteorological devices and gauges after Olexík died.
The object is open to the public – it is a public hospital.
St. Michal’s Church – located at the Dominican Square. The Baroque temple that belongs to
the adjacent Dominican monastery was built in 1659–1679 according to a design by Italian
architect Jan Baptist Erne. Mendel served his first mass there after he was ordained. There was
an institute of theological studies by the entrance to the Dominica monastery in the Dominican
Street that was abolished during the reign of Joseph II. Mendel studied there from 1844 to 1848.
He was ordained a priest at the St. Michal’s Church on 6 August 1847, i.e. in the third year of
his four-year studied and he served his first mass there on 15 August. The premature ordination
was approved by the Bishop who considered the high mortality rate among young priests due
to infections caught while taking care of the ill in the Brno hospitals. Mendel completed his
theological studies by a final exam in theology on 30 June 1848. The church is open to the public
and the premises of the former Institute of Theological Studies and the abolished Dominican
monastery are nowadays occupied by the Office of the Brno-Centre Municipal District.
Secondary Vocational School of Food and Trade – originally a state high school in Building
No. 22 in Jánská Street. Mendel used to teach physics and natural sciences there. He was
employed at the school from May 1854 until his election as an abbot in March 1868. The state
high school focused on the education of natural sciences and technical fields that drove the
industrial development in Moravia at that time. Many university teachers from various places
of the Austrian monarchy used to teach there: they were persecuted for their revolutionary
opinions in 1848 and degraded to high school teachers, for example Josef Auspitz, who had
to leave Vienna, Alexander Zawadzki of Lvov and many others. The new building of the high
school, designed by Prof. Ludwig Förster, was solemnly opened at the end of October 1859. The
three-storey building with a monumentally branched staircase was also the seat of the Scientific
Society where Mendel presented the results of his meteorological observations and where he
delivered his presentation about the particular inheritance theory in 1865. Today, the building
is used by several school facilities and it is not open to the public. There is a commemorative
plaque on the building.
Building of the Masaryk University – one of the buildings of the Masaryk University at
Komenský’s Square was originally the seat of the German Technical Institute. The neoRenaissance building was built in 1858–60. The Scientific Society held its seminars there after
it moved its seat and library from Jánská Street to the City Courtyard where there was no
seminar hall available. Mendel, as the chairman of the Scientific Society, often chaired the
meetings. Apart from that he also worked as a substitute teacher at the Technical Institute when
they did not have fixed premises. He used to help in the subject of natural sciences as the deputy
of Professor Jan Helcelet, which helped him to get a position at the high school. The building
is not open to the public.
46
Casino in Lužánky – a place of annual fruit and agricultural exhibitions. The Lužánky Park
was made publicly accessible by a decision by enlightened Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.
The so-called Casino was built at the centre of the Park in 1853–1855 according to Ludwig von
Förster’s design. The object was used for social meetings and there was a community, concert
and dance hall there. It was often used for the fruit exhibitions that Mendel regularly visited and
where he also participated as an evaluator. The object is now used by the Leisure Time Centre
in Brno and it is not publicly accessible to tourists.
Regional Palace – the second seat of the Moravian Regional Assembly was built in 1860s and
1870s according to a project by Anton Hefft and Robert Raschka. It is the most monumental
object along the Brno crescent whose four wings embrace four courtyards and there is a twostorey assembly hall in the centre. In Mendel’s times, it used to be a seat of the Mortgage Bank
of the Moravian Margravate. Mendel was a deputy director of the bank in 1876 and then a
managing director in 1881. Today, this interesting historicizing object is not open to the public;
it is the seat of the Czech Constitutional Court.
Czech National Bank – a plaque on the facade of the building in Roosevelt Street commemorates
Mendel’s work in the function of the managing director of the Mortgage Bank. The first loan
bank in the Habsburg Monarchy that associated the owners of the Brno business capital and
owners of textile factories used to have several seats. In 1878, it was located on one of the floors
of the Regional Palace (see above) but a new palace was soon built at the corner of Roosevelt
and Dvořák’s Street. The palace was completed shortly after Mendel died. It is not open to
tourists.
Central Cemetery – Mendel, who died on the Three Wise Men Day, was buried on 9 January
1884 in an Augustinian crypt as the first Roman Catholic priest. His Silesian contemporary,
Pavel Křížkovský, an Augustinian, who also had a great influence on Leoš Janáček as the
choirmaster of the Old Brno choir, is also buried in the same crypt. František Bratranek,
Mendel’s rival candidate in the abbot election, is also buried there.
Šardice
Building of the Augustinian residence – the order rebuilt the original granary to its residence
that they used as a summer house. Mendel probably visited the residence regularly during his
inspections of the condition of the estate. It is now used for expositions.
Znojmo
The building of the grammar school, now occupied by a business academy, carries a
commemorative plaque installed by the Znojmo Adornment Club. Mendel was sent to a local
grammar school as a substitute teacher in 1849. The local management encouraged him to study
in Vienna but he did not succeed. The building is not publicly accessible.
47
The church in Vražné where Johann Mendel was baptized on 20 July 1822
48
The object of the former Piarist College in Lipník
The courtyard of the former Piarist College in Lipník
49
The former German grammar school where Mendel studied is not used as the seat of the Regional Archive in Opava
The building of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology at the Palacký University in Olomouc where there
used to be the Philosophical Institute where Mendel studied
50
The Old Brno Augustinian Abbey, today the seat of the Mendel Museum
51
This is where the Institute of Theological Studies at St. Michal’s where Mendel studied used to be.
Mendel prepared for his priesthood career there.
52
Gregor Johann Mendel served his first mass in St. Michal’s Church designed by Italian architect Jan Baptist Erne
53
Young chaplain Gregor Mendel started his pastoral care for the ill and the dying in the former St. Ann’s Regional Hospital.
The generous concept of the hospital buildings in Pekařská Street with patient rooms, operating theatres, parks and a hospital
chapel was designed by architect Theophil von Hansen.
54
The former seat of the German Technical Institute. This is where the Scientific Society held its seminars,
which Mendel often chaired.
The Regional Palace, a former seat of the Mortgage Bank of the Moravian Margravate where Mendel worked.
Today, it is the seat of the Czech Constitutional Court.
55
The building of the former state high school in Jánská Street where Mendel used to teach and present his experiments.
It is a proof of the significance which Moravia assigned to education in natural sciences in the 19th century.
56
The commemorative plaque on the facade of the former state high school.
57
The building of the former Mortgage Bank of the Moravian Margravate, today the Czech National Bank. The plaque on the
facade commemorates Augustinian Abbot Gregor Mendel as the managing director of the bank.
58
The Augustinian crypt at the Brno Central Cemetery where Mendel is buried
59
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
Gregor Mendel a počátky genetiky. Vítězslav Orel, Academia, Praha, 2003.
Genetika. Snustad, D. Peter - Simmons, Michael J. - Relichová, Jiřina - Doškař, Jiří - Fajkus,
Jiří - Hořín, Petr - Knoll, Aleš - Kuglík, Petr - Šmarda, Jan - Šmardová, Jana - Veselská,
Renata - Vyskot, Boris. Genetika. Vyd. Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2009.
Pokusy s hybridy rostlin. Mendel, Gregor: Versuche über Pflanzen – Hybriden ; překlad
Matalová, Anna ; K - public, Brno 2008.
Gregor Johann Mendel – A Legend of Brno, The City of Science and Research.
Educational material for the participants of the project To Know and to Share,
co-financed from the resources of the Education for Competitiveness Operational Programme.
Prepared by Ondřej Dostál.
Photographs provided by the archive of the Mendel Museum in Brno
and Jan Chmelíček, drawings by Petr Modlitba.
Project Methodologist and Text Editor: Jan Chmelíček.
Project Manager: Zuzana Vojtová. (2012)
60

GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL

Transcription

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