Character in German city emptied crate (7)
I believe the answer is:
essence
'character' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'german city emptied crate' is the wordplay.
'german city' becomes 'essen' (city in Germany).
'emptied' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'crate' with its middle taken out is 'ce'.
'essen'+'ce'='ESSENCE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for essence that I've seen before include "Nitty-gritty" , "Concentrated liquid flavouring" , "Key" , "Intrinsic nature; four Dn" , "Vital element" .)