While there is a sprawling literature that debates the influence of Ordoliberalism on crisis and Euro politics, there is a striking lack of studies outside of the German-speaking social sciences that trace the Ordoliberal influence within Germany. Someone who associates German political action to Ordoliberal ideas has to put up with a striking paradox: how is it that most of the institutions that constitute the German political economy are of the type that Ordoliberals have feared since the 1930s? This contribution will clarify the relationship between the Ordoliberal thinkers of the Freiburg School and the Social Market Economy in theory and practice.