Vienna hosted the stock exchange whose collapse helped begin the Long Depression in 1873.
The Panic of 1873 began with the Vienna Stock Exchange crash on May 9, 1873, a day remembered as Gründerkrach, or “founders' crash.” A speculative boom in company formation and property investment had created inflated prices and fragile financial structures. When confidence broke, prices plunged and failures spread.
The shock soon reached Germany and the United States. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The resulting international downturn brought bank failures, falling prices, unemployment, and reduced investment.
Historians debate how long the depression lasted and whether its causes were primarily financial, monetary, or structural. The Vienna crash is nevertheless a recognized starting point for the wider crisis. It should not be confused with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, which occurred more than five decades later.