Mendel was born into an
ethnic German family in
Heinzendorf bei Odrau,
Austrian Silesia,
Austrian Empire (now
Hynčice,
Czech Republic), and was baptized two days later. He was the son of Anton and Rosine Mendel, and had one older sister and one younger. They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Mendel family for at least 130 years.
[3] During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener, studied
beekeeping, and as a young man attended the
Philosophical Institute in
Olomouc in 1840–1843. Upon recommendation of his
physics teacher Friedrich Franz, he entered the
Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno in 1843. Born Johann Mendel, he took the name Gregor upon entering
monastic life. In 1851 he was sent to the
University of Vienna to study under the sponsorship of
Abbot C. F. Napp. At Vienna, his professor of physics was
Christian Doppler.
[4] Mendel returned to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher, principally of physics, and by 1867, he had replaced Napp as abbot of the monastery.
[5]
Besides his work on plant breeding while at St Thomas's Abbey, Mendel also bred bees in a bee house that was built for him, using bee hives that he designed.
[6] He also studied astronomy and meteorology,
[5] founding the 'Austrian Meteorological Society' in 1865.
[4] The majority of his published works were related to meteorology
