A 1 Horse-power vehicle

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper published this photograph in its Sunday edition on October 16, 2022; but the photo actually dates from 1973, during the worst of the OPEC Oil Embargo ("OPEC" stands for Organization of Oil-producing Countries.), initiated by the OPEC nations to protest continued support of Israel by America and Europe, It crippled the economies of those nations for several years afterward. The Frankfurter Allgemeine published it in 2022 because the Russo-Ukrainian War and the sabotaging of oil and gas deliveries had driven the price for oil-products through the roof. German leaders especially worried that the nation would not have the means to keep homes heated through the Winter.

In the curious photo, a woman has hitched her Volkswagen Beetle to a horse, since she cannot find gasoline for it. The horse wears a BRD license plate that stands for "Bundesrepublik Deutschland," the German name for the Federal Republic of Germany. "P.S. 1" stands for Pferde-stunde 1 and refers to the fact that the horse makes the Beetle a single horse-power vehicle.

 

I was attending Furman University during the Embargo-years and thought I would have to leave and go to work. Perhaps ten percent of the students had to leave because their parents worked in some area of oil-refining. It was the first instance in my lifetime that a cartel of nations had used an embargo in a geo-political setting. This image will probably make historians revisit the issues of the Oil Embargo, since the West is again facing de-facto embargoes--Russia against the Western supporters of Ukraine; and the U.S. against Mainland China's intentions toward Taiwan.

American historians will probably also remember the cursed "Ograbme" ("Embargo" spelled backward) from the era of hostile relations during the Napoleonic era between England, France, and the U.S..
(Thanks to marcliebman.com for its high-resolution "Ograbme" image.)

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