Article by one German backed woman (5)
I believe the answer is:
annie
'woman' is the definition.
(woman's name)
'article by one german backed' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'an' (English indefinite article).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'one german' becomes 'ein' ('one' in German).
'backed' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'ein' in reverse letter order is 'nie'.
'an'+'nie'='ANNIE'
(Other definitions for annie that I've seen before include "Popular musical about girl orphan" , "Cartoon strip orphan" , "Oakley, Laurie or Hall" , "musical movie" , "-- Lennox, singer" .)