The Vienna Stock Exchange suffered the 1873 crash known as Black Friday after the failure of S. M. von Rothschild.
On May 9, 1873, panic selling overwhelmed the Vienna market. The immediate crisis followed the failure of the investment firm S. M. von Rothschild, but deeper causes included excessive speculation, rapid credit expansion, and a construction boom connected to Vienna’s World Exhibition.
The crash spread through the Austro-Hungarian financial system and became an important early stage of the international Panic of 1873. Financial distress later reached Germany and the United States, where the failure of Jay Cooke & Company helped turn the turmoil into a major American panic.
This event is sometimes confused with Black Friday in British financial history or with later American market crashes. In the context of the Panic of 1873, Black Friday specifically refers to the Vienna market collapse on May 9.