Le début des relations mathématiques franco-tchécoslovaques vu à travers la correspondance Hostinsky-Fréchet
Résumé
In this paper, we present the beginning of the correspondence between the French mathematician Maurice Fréchet and the Czech mathematician Bohuslav Hostinsky, which occured just after the end of World War I. We present an overview of their mathematical activity before they met. We present also the academic situation both in the newly created Brno University where Hostinský was appointed in 1920 and in Strasbourg University, returned to France in 1918, when Fréchet was sent in 1919. A major interest in this correspondence is that it displays how the two scientists began to be involved in researches on probability theory.