is it common for a German shepherd to give birth to a SINGLE pup, which was also still born, Girl seems settled since delivering 11.45 this morning, the lady isn't worried about her but ive gave several litters over a number of years and have never had less than 8 in a litter, this lovely girl has had 2 previous litters 10 and 8 pups, I mentioned a vet visit for a scan just to be safe but she said she will wait

Any female animal can absorb in utero fetuses so yes a bitch can have a singleton still born. Fetuses are often sbsorbed if the female is stressed, the foetus is malformed, infection, etc could be the bitch wasn't mated at the optimum time, has low fertility etc etc lots of variables

Well I'd have a vet involved, to make sure she is empty.   Sadly stuff happens.   I've had a couple of small litters, the first of only 2 and one of them was DOA once finally delivered and the other only ever had one.  In her case she simply appeared to have a number by around 5 weeks, but didn't get any bigger.   She may well have reabsorbed.   As she only had 2 in her first litter she clearly wasn't meant for motherhood - odd that because of the two bitches we kept from that litter, I'd have said she was way more likely to be the good mother.   Her prima donna sister, on the other hand, should have had 9 puppies had it not been for a veterinary disaster - she eventually only had 4 that survive.   For both, those were their last litters.

There can be loads of reasons for it - from fertility (perhaps only one egg was released which was viable) to sperm viability (most sperm was unable to fertilise eggs) to timing (most eggs had died by the time sperm got to them) to stress (causing absorption) to things like canine herpes (absorption in early pregnancy) and so on....

If it were only once there'd been any problems, I'd chalk it up to some weird factor you'll never know but if you have any misses in the past or other issues then it might be worth seeing a repro vet.

I don't consider one pup to be totally abnormal.  My Border Collie (named Solo ) was a litter of one.

My last Beardie was a single pup and a friend also had a bitch who was a single pup.