100 Jahre Hardy-Weinberg-Gleichgewicht

One hundred years ago, Godfrey H. Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg worked out, in independent publications, the formula that is regarded today as the elementary law for quantitative population genetics. In this article we describe the time period before the discovery of the Hardy–Weinberg law and try to illuminate the circumstances that surrounded its development. We will further name those scientists who also worked on this problem and who can be regarded as the predecessors of the Hardy–Weinberg principle.