Desert Dancer, thanks for copying out the list. Must have been quite a task!

Quite a few of the names in the list are from 'the new states', the late GDR. Steffen Junghans took his middle name in reverence to Robbie Basho - a hint at the direction of his musical tastes.
Dissidenten were one of the best-known GDR bands, but I wouldn't have listed them under folk. (Maybe that's because my taste doesn't run to folk rock.)
JAMS have been mentioned. They call their music 'bastard music' because it's a mixture of everything they like, from trad tunes to Balkan styles and folk rock. I believe they also see it as a political statement, namely that there is no 'pure' culture, that all culture is a mixture of influences.
Cathrin Pfeifer does not play 'German' folk music, either, as is apparent from the title given.
U.L.M.A.N. are two brothers and a cousin, all very young when they first shot to fame on the folk scene some ten years ago. Their father (uncle) Peter Ullmann was in the thick of the GDR folk scene for as long as it existed, and now organises Rudolstadt Folk Festival, so they grew up steeped in folk music. They are no traditionalists, though, but have developed their own distinctive style.
Wacholder was a trio of folk stalwarts and goes back a long way, I believe. After being reunited with the rest of Germany they did joint tours with Dick Gaughan, the Sands Family and Iain MacKintosh, among others, but finally decided to pack it in last year.
Zapf'nstreich I don't know, not even where they're from.
Thomas Felder and Christof Staehlin are two of the best German songwriters, with a very definite political slant. Felder writes in his native 'badisch' dialect, from the Black Forest area. Staehlin has a very idiosyncratic style, which can get monotonous, but his lyrics are definitely worth studying.
Hoelderlin Express is another outfit integrating many different influences into their take on folk music. (I'm not sure they still exist, though.)
Hundsbuam - I know their name but not their music, so I'd better pass on this one. Same goes for Trio Grande.
Klaus der Geiger is (iirr) a classically trained violinist who decided about thirty or forty years ago to spend his life as a busking fiddler and singer of political songs in and around Cologne. He is a legend on the folk scene, and I believe he has recently published a book of memoirs.

Ken Hunt seems to have made a rather eclectic choice of German folk music, but this may have to do with the content of his article. Maybe he thought bands like Bierfiedler and Liederjan (who both celebrated their 25 years together recently) too popular to mention, but they have certainly had a seminal influence on the German folk scene and are still going strong, as are songwriters like Hannes Wader, Helmut Debus from East Friesland and the Biermoesl Blosn from Bavaria. I'd have expected him to mention Grenzgaenger, the duo that did the CD of German emigration songs and won the German Folk Award and other prestigious awards in 1995. The dance scene hasn't been mentioned, but that's a topic I leave to more knowledgeable people.
Apologies again for the length of my posting. I must have too much time on my hands! (Not that I've noticed so far ...)