Crossword Genius

European city with rearing monster from which I fled (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

essen

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'european city with rearing monster from which i fled' is the definition.
'essen' can be an answer for 'european city' (city in Germany). I'm unsure of the remainder of the definition.

'european city with rearing' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'city with' becomes 'ness' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rearing' says the letters should be written backwards (as in a horse rearing up).
'ness' reversed gives 'ssen'.
'e'+'ssen'='ESSEN'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for essen that I've seen before include "Industrial city of northwest Germany" , "German place name" , "Krupp HQ (Ger.)" , "Main industrial city of the Ruhr" , "European city" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app