Austria experienced the 1873 stock-exchange crash that helped begin the Long Depression.
The Vienna Stock Exchange collapsed on May 9, 1873, in an event known as the Gründerkrach, or Founders' Crash. A speculative boom had encouraged rapid company formation, railway investment, and heavy share buying. When confidence broke, many securities plunged and banks and businesses came under pressure.
The crash occurred shortly after the Vienna World's Fair and spread through financial connections in Europe and North America. In the United States, the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped produce the Panic of 1873.
Historians debate how to define and date the Long Depression, but the Vienna crash is widely identified as an early turning point. It is not the same event as the 1929 Wall Street Crash, which occurred more than five decades later.