Headless vandal the German brings down (5)
I believe the answer is:
under
'down' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'headless vandal the german' is the wordplay.
'headless' means to remove the first letter.
'vandal' becomes 'hun' (I've seen this in another clue).
'the german' becomes 'der' ('the' in German).
'hun' with its first letter taken away is 'un'.
'un'+'der'='UNDER'
'brings' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for under that I've seen before include "Inferior" , "In the process of" , "Anaesthetised" , "Dylan Thomas radio play ''.... Milk Wood''" , "Managed by" .)