Abstract
The article is dedicated to the analysis of a website on SPIEGEL-Online that reconstructs the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 in the course of remembering ten years later. Starting with a description of the discourse fragments that are fed from various digital archives, the question is explored as to what kind of memory site it is. Against this background, the discursive structure of the website is subjected to an analysis. This analysis forms the starting point for an examination of the meaning of the discourse fragments, especially the semantics of the visual elements. The focus will first be on the question of the inner structure of the website, the arrangement of the images, which, according to the thesis, follows a narrative logic. The question will then be explored as to what role aestheticisation plays as a condition for certain press photographs to coagulate into political icons. A possibly surprising effect that can arise from the field of tension between the "striking image" (Aby Warburg), aestheticisation and emotional memory completes the article.
