There are many contradictory attempts to bring the phenomenon of power into a theoretically and empirically successful concept. In light of this situation, a theory of power cannot be satisfied with a descriptive interpretation or an essence analysis that more or less assumes what it retrieves as a result. Attempts to analyze the concept itself and to break it down into its various meanings do not lead further either. Luhmann's considerations return to society as a condition for the possibility of power, thus forming a theory of power through a theory of society. It is about clarifying what it might mean to treat power as a symbolically generalized medium of communication and to integrate power analyses (particularly of money, truth, and love) into this theoretical societal context.