Mark must have been delirious when he wrote:
One view that people hold is that East Germany is a country in which the rights of the proletariat were protected against
exploitation
by the imperialistic expansionism of the United States and its
cronies,
as opposed to West Germany, where exploitation by the owners of the means of production was allowed to run rampant.
Sometimes people become mentally unbalanced when in severe pain, or drugged up (or both :-)
East Germans' rights were so well protected that there was a wall in Berlin with armed guards and booby-traps to prevent people from leaving town and exposing themselves to Capitalist exploitation in the West.
Okay, okay, I get yer point, Delirium. The arguments would never end if this encyclopedia tried to "get to the real truth" of the matter. Which, of course, is why Larry & Jimbo insisted we write each article from a Neutral Point of View.
Ed Poor Champion of Human Rights Shameless Promoter of Free Markets Brainwashed Zombie Cult Victim Etc. ;-)