Math{\'e}matiques et M{\'e}canique {\`a} Strasbourg entre 1871 et 1939

Abstract

The University of Strasbourg, fundamentally humanistic since its creation, has a complicated history, being sometimes German, sometimes French through the ages. If one focus, from 1871, on the area of mathematics, we can identify two periods. Political goals led to send high-level scientists, sometimes rather young, to develop theoretical, later applied mathematics, leading to a novel area, mechanics. The first period, under Prussian influence until 1918, will see the emergence of an Institute of mathematics such it was existing in G{\"o}ttingen; the second, dominated by the French influence, will make Strasbourg an anteroom to positions at the prestigious Faculty of Sciences in Paris, the Sorbonne, the Academy of Sciences or the ENS. Present communication will give an inside, through its history, of the development of Mathematics in Strasbourg, prelude to emerging Mechanics and the creation of what will become the Institut de M{\'e}canique des Fluides et des Solides en 2000.