Vienna’s stock exchange crash is commonly associated with the European beginning of the Panic of 1873.
On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange suffered a dramatic collapse known as the Gründerkrach, or “founders’ crash.” Speculative investment had surged during a period of rapid industrialization and railway construction. When confidence failed, share prices fell sharply and many banks and companies became distressed.
The panic spread through financial connections to Germany and then across the Atlantic, where the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in September helped trigger a major crisis in the United States. The resulting depression lasted for years and is often called the Long Depression, although historians debate its exact dates and severity. A common mix-up is naming New York as the starting point: New York was central to the American phase, but Vienna is associated with the initial European stock-market crash.