Into pieces like a French and German article (7)
I believe the answer is:
asunder
'into pieces' is the definition.
('asunder' can be a synonym of 'into pieces')
'like a french and german article' is the wordplay.
'like' becomes 'as'.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'german article' becomes 'der'.
'as'+'un'+'der'='ASUNDER'
(Other definitions for asunder that I've seen before include "Apart - in pieces" , "being in two" , "(Broken) apart" , "Apart (archaic)" , "(Split) into pieces" .)