Many scientists shy away from defining capitalism as the devil shies away from holy water, as it is elusive, controversial, at best polemical, and has undergone a change in meaning over the years. However, only on the basis of a somewhat tangible definition can we get closer to the phenomenon of capitalism. We also take a brief look back at the history of capitalism, as this is the only way to understand how Karl Marx came to his devastating assessment, which seems somewhat alien to us from today’s perspective. There is also not one capitalism in the world, but there have always been different variants, some of which have cultural or traditional causes. For example, the capitalism of American imprint is different from that in the Scandinavian countries or in Germany with the social market economy.