Something vital from German city -- it's picked up by almost everyone (9)
I believe the answer is:
essential
'something vital' is the definition.
(something which is essential)
'german city it's picked up by almost everyone' is the wordplay.
'german city' becomes 'essen' (city in Germany).
'picked up' is a reversal indicator.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'everyone' becomes 'all' (all people).
'it' back-to-front is 'ti'.
'all' with its last letter taken away is 'al'.
'essen'+'ti'+'al'='ESSENTIAL'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for essential that I've seen before include "Basic or necessary" , "Indispensible" , "Vital" , "something necessary" , "Crucial" .)