Heard German's negative figure (4)
I believe the answer is:
nine
'figure' is the definition.
(a number of figure)
'heard german's negative' is the wordplay.
'heard' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'german's negative' becomes 'nein' ('no' in German).
'nein' is a homophone of 'NINE'.
(Other definitions for nine that I've seen before include "Short time for a wonder" , "One more than fourteen across" , "SECOND PART OF 14" , "No. of cat lives" , "Three squared" .)