The 1873 financial panic that began in Vienna and spread across Europe and the United States was the Panic of 1873.
The panic followed a period of aggressive railway construction, real-estate speculation, and rapid credit expansion. On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange suffered a major collapse, often called the Gründerkrach. Financial distress then spread through Germany and other European markets. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a crisis and the temporary closure of the New York Stock Exchange.
The prolonged economic weakness that followed is commonly called the Long Depression, although historians debate its exact boundaries and severity. The episode affected investment, employment, prices, and industrial production across several countries. It is distinct from the Panic of 1893, another major U.S. financial crisis, and from the Panic of 1837, which occurred decades earlier.