Which exchange suffered a major crash in May 1873, helping trigger the Long Depression?

The Vienna Stock Exchange suffered the major May 1873 crash that helped trigger the Long Depression.

The collapse, known as the Gründerkrach, began in Vienna on 9 May 1873. A speculative boom had encouraged heavy investment in railways, buildings, and companies, and prices fell sharply when confidence broke. The panic spread through financial markets in Europe and later affected the United States.

The crisis was connected to wider changes after the Franco-Prussian War, including large German indemnity payments, rapid industrial expansion, and speculative finance. The United States experienced its own severe panic later in 1873, after the failure of the investment bank Jay Cooke & Company.

The Long Depression is not the same as the Great Depression of the 1930s. It lasted for many years, although historians debate its exact dates and whether it should be considered a single global depression. Vienna’s crash is the key early event associated with the 1873 panic.