Public school in Germany - initially distressing (9)
I believe the answer is:
harrowing
'distressing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'public school in germany initially' is the wordplay.
'public school' becomes 'Harrow' (English public school).
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'germany' is 'g'.
'harrow'+'in'+'g'='HARROWING'
(Other definitions for harrowing that I've seen before include "Breaking up soil or distressing greatly" , "Acutely distressing" , "work for a farmer" , "traumatic" , "Breaking new ground" .)