Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill are the most prominent representatives of classical economic liberalism. Their economic concepts and theories not only led to a fundamental paradigm shift in scientific terms. In the 19th century, they were initially appropriated by the Manchester Liberals and later, from the second half of the 20th century to the present, by the neoliberals of the Austrian and Chicago schools for their radical market ideology, politically instrumentalizing them. Erik Kan demonstrates that economic liberalism originally envisioned a much more significant and thus influential role for the state - with a much more socially oriented approach than is commonly assumed today. According to this view, current neoliberalism lacks any scientific foundation and tradition. To substantiate this, the author investigates the true intentions of classical economic liberals through original quotes and biographical backgrounds. Are economic liberalism in its original sense and socialism to be seen as fundamentally incompatible opposites? After a thorough examination of classical economic theorists, the question also arises to what extent their ideas could still be realizable today.