Which Austrian stock exchange saw a major collapse at the start of the Panic of 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange saw a major collapse at the start of the Panic of 1873.

On 9 May 1873, a severe sell-off struck Vienna’s Börse after a period of rapid speculation in shares, property, and railway projects. The day became known as the Gründerkrach, or “founders’ crash,” and is widely treated as the opening shock of the Long Depression.

The crisis spread through European and American financial markets. Bank failures, overextended railway companies, falling asset prices, and tighter credit all contributed. In the United States, the failure of the investment firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped bring the panic to Wall Street and caused the New York Stock Exchange to close temporarily.

The Vienna crash is sometimes confused with the entire Panic of 1873. Vienna was the initial center of the market collapse, while the wider depression developed through interconnected banking and industrial problems across several countries.