Vienna saw the 1873 stock-market crash that helped begin the Long Depression.
On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange suffered a dramatic collapse known as the Gründerkrach, or founders' crash. Speculation had surged in the years after the Austro-Prussian War, with investors pouring money into companies, construction, and property.
The Vienna panic spread through interconnected financial markets and helped expose excessive borrowing and weak businesses. Later in 1873, financial failures in the United States deepened the international downturn. The resulting period of economic weakness is commonly called the Long Depression.
The event is sometimes described as the first major global financial crisis of the modern industrial era. Its causes included speculative bubbles, railway expansion, credit growth, and international economic links. The term “Great Depression” was not used for this episode; that name generally refers to the worldwide crisis beginning in 1929.