The Federal Republic of Germany is regarded as a welfare stat (e in the local phrase "Sozialstaat",[so to say "social state"]) with high rate of social benefits to the GDP after the World War II. With the concept "social market economy" they have accepted the public intervention to the economy in order to enforce the market mechanism, which has led to unexpectedly high level of the social benefi ts as a result. Recently, however, in the worldwide recession and the competitive pressure from an expanding global economy the additional labor costs beside the wage in a welfare state are regarded as so heavy burden that the policy orientating the cut off of the welfare costs like the "Agenda 2010" was pursued even under the administration of the left government. Thus it is to question whether the welfare and the rational handling of the economy is really incompatible, wherefore the nature of the "Sozialstaat" should be discussed in the historical perspective. In the FRG the people from the conservative to the reformists have agreed with the socially conceived state in bringing together to a vague concept "social" under the hidden immanent variety of its understanding, but in keeping the principle of the free market economy at the same time. However, the country had to remain in an unexpected provisioning state till the mid-50s because of urgent problems as a consequence of the War, even under the administration of the conservative coalition which wanted actually to carry out market-compliant policy. The confusion of the benefit systems, however, had to be gotten together, what was partly realized in the reconstruction of the economic performance. The Pension Reform in 1957 was one of the most significant cases with which the pension was now adapted to the actual wage level dynamically. It means a social benefit has been realized which kept the standard of life of the recipient in substituting the former wage. Thus the scale of social benefits has expanded, during the system maintained the social disparities substantially. This successful transition brought and confirmed the trend of German social policy in the 1960s to meet the social demand favorably in spite of the slow down of the high economic growth till that time. In order to fulfill the growing social demand the systematic redistribution was ineluctably organized, what has continued also in the 70s and 80s even after the oil shock and in the persisting depression. The economic crisis caused financial embarrassments of the fund for welfare systems (with reduced tax revenue and reduced contribution of the Social Insurance), for which reason various propositions for the cutback in expenditure were taken into consideration. In fact some measures were taken which reduced the level and coverage of the benefits in existing welfare systems. But the consensus to be "social" hindered the essential dismantlement of the system. The critical economic environment since the late 1990s has enhanced, indeed, the awareness of the need of reforms. Thus the bundle of countermeasures like the "Agenda 2010" was carried out under the administration of social democrats, which provoked a sensation and seemingly disposed the social discordance. It has become a moot point whether the consensus for the "Sozialstaat" still exists. But the socially conceived management of the market economy itself has not disappeared, which was not inevitably coherent with the equality. The social intervention has been working for the smooth function of the free market and made social capitalism possible, which has allowed eventually the high level of social benefits. Therefore it seems to be still disputable that the consensus to be "social" has already dissolved.