Which exchange was at the center of the 1873 stock-market crash known as the Panic of 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange was at the center of the 1873 stock-market crash known as the Panic of 1873.

On May 9, 1873, a collapse in speculative share prices in Vienna triggered a major financial panic. The date is remembered in German-speaking Europe as the Gründerkrach, or founders’ crash. Speculation had surged during an economic expansion after the Austro-Prussian War, with strong interest in railways, property, and new companies.

The Vienna panic quickly affected banks and markets elsewhere, including Berlin and New York. In the United States, the failure of the investment firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped turn financial stress into a broader crisis. A long period of weak growth followed in many economies, although historians debate the exact boundaries and causes of the “Long Depression.”

The event is sometimes labeled simply an American panic, but its opening shock occurred in Vienna. The New York Stock Exchange also temporarily closed during the later American phase, showing how international financial connections had already become important.