ABSTRACT
Credit-Anstalt was founded in Vienna in 1855. This chapter examines the rise and fall of Credit-Anstalt and its role in the economic collapse of Austria during the early 1930s. Credit-Anstalt's failure was to trigger a major banking panic that spread from Austria to Hungary, to Germany, England, and eventually to the United States. Credit-Anstalt was a complement to the Jewish financier family's other branches in Germany, Britain, France, and Italy. Credit-Anstalt was formed at a time when the Rothschilds were focusing on Vienna as the main support for their investments in central European railroad construction. In 1931, Austria was firmly mired in the global depression. Business activity and industrial production had already contracted sharply between 1929 and 1931. Credit-Anstalt's vulnerability soon started to ripple through other banks and financial institutions with devastating effect. Credit-Anstalt's failure left a number of bitter legacies in Austria and beyond.
