Father to the French and mother to the Germans (4)
I believe the answer is:
frau
'mother to the germans' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'father to the french' is the wordplay.
'father' becomes 'fr' (abbreviation as in a priest's title).
'to the french' becomes 'au' ('to the' in French).
'fr'+'au'='FRAU'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for frau that I've seen before include "German woman's title" , "Mrs in Germany" , "German lady" , "German form of Mrs" , "Address for an adult German woman" .)