The
Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute was founded in 1872 and is located in the town of
Geisenheim, in Germany's
Rheingau region. In 1876 Swiss-born professor
Hermann Müller joined the institute, where he developed his namesake grape variety
Müller-Thurgau, which became Germany's most-planted grape variety in the 1970s. Professor
Helmut Becker worked at the institute from 1964 until his death in 1989.