Text in German. The welfare states in Europe and the USA did not come into being without or against, but with the help of a section of the middle class and the middle class. Almost all of the private and public welfare personnel were recruited from them. The social reformers from the bourgeoisie and the middle class mediated between their own norms, their own attitude towards life, the fear of revolution or unrest, the desire to create a new community and all of the opposing trends and tendencies of an industrialized and unstable class society, whose problem of poverty was obvious. In this study, Marcus Gräser analyzes the mutual significance of the relationship between poverty, middle class and welfare state using the example of Germany and the USA.