German city of Cologne perhaps, without Church (5)
I believe the answer is:
essen
'german city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'cologne perhaps without church' is the wordplay.
'cologne perhaps' becomes 'essence' (cologne is a kind of essence).
'without' suggests deleting specific letters.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'essence' with 'ce' taken out is 'ESSEN'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for essen that I've seen before include "Krupp HQ (Ger.)" , "German industrial city on the Ruhr" , "European city" , "Industrial centre of the Ruhr" , "Industrial city of northwest Germany" .)