Appeal associated with German river for couples (5)
I believe the answer is:
items
'couples' is the definition.
(a couple might be called an 'item')
'appeal associated with german river' is the wordplay.
'appeal' becomes 'it'.
'associated with' says to put letters next to each other.
'german river' becomes 'ems' (I've seen this before).
'it'+'ems'='ITEMS'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for items that I've seen before include "Things on a list" , "Bits of news" , "Elements" , "Individuals units" , "Agenda points" .)