Former spirit's underlying Germany's stagnation (8)
I believe the answer is:
doldrums
'stagnation' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'former spirit's underlying germany's' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'former' could be 'old' (I've seen this before) and 'old' is located in the answer.
'spirit's' could be 'rums' and 'rums' is located in the answer.
'germany' could be 'd' (international vehicle registration code) and 'd' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for doldrums that I've seen before include "Period of depression - horse latitudes" , "Belt of calms and unpredictable weather in equatorial seas" , "Belt of calm where winds from north and south come together" , "Area of calms between the northern and southern trade winds of the Atlantic and Pacific" , "State of depression" .)