The May 9, 1873 Vienna stock-market panic is known as Black Friday and helped begin the Long Depression.
The panic began at the Vienna Stock Exchange after speculative investment and rapidly expanding credit had fueled a boom in Austria-Hungary. When confidence broke, prices plunged and numerous banks and companies failed. The date became known in German-speaking Europe as Gründerkrach, meaning the founders’ crash.
Financial stress spread internationally. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke and Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major panic, followed by bank failures, business closures, falling prices, and prolonged unemployment.
The Long Depression lasted for much of the 1870s and 1880s, although historians differ over its precise boundaries and severity. “Black Friday” is not unique to this event: the same nickname is also used for other financial panics, so the date and Vienna setting are essential for identification.