Vienna hosted the stock exchange crash on May 9, 1873, often considered the start of the Long Depression.
The event, known as the Gründerkrach, struck the Vienna Stock Exchange after speculative investment had expanded during an economic boom. Investors rushed to sell shares, and the collapse damaged banks and businesses. Financial stress then spread beyond Austria-Hungary.
The Panic of 1873 also involved the United States, where the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company helped trigger a major financial crisis later that year. Railroads, construction, and land speculation were especially exposed. The resulting downturn was long and affected several industrial economies.
The crash is sometimes labeled the “Great Depression” of the nineteenth century, but that name is more commonly associated today with the 1929-era depression. “Long Depression” helps distinguish the 1873 downturn, whose chronology and intensity varied from country to country.