German city Cologne cleared for perfume (7)
I believe the answer is:
essence
'for perfume' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'german city cologne cleared' is the wordplay.
'german city' becomes 'essen' (city in Germany).
'cleared' means to remove the middle letters (the inside letters are cleared out).
'cologne' with its centre taken out is 'ce'.
'essen'+'ce'='ESSENCE'
(Other definitions for essence that I've seen before include "Attar" , "Perfume or concentrated extract" , "Plant extract or concentrate" , "Distillate; gist" , "Intrinsic character" .)