diff --git a/test_data/all_data/anything-data.ttl b/test_data/all_data/anything-data.ttl
index f494868d99..2ca73a175e 100644
--- a/test_data/all_data/anything-data.ttl
+++ b/test_data/all_data/anything-data.ttl
@@ -1867,7 +1867,8 @@
   knora-base:listNodeName "node 3";
   knora-base:hasRootNode <http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList>;
   knora-base:listNodePosition 2;
-  rdfs:label "node 3"@en .
+  rdfs:label "node 3"@en ;
+  knora-base:hasSubListNode <http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList031> .
 
 <http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList011> a knora-base:ListNode;
   knora-base:listNodeName "child of node 1";
@@ -1898,4 +1899,10 @@
   knora-base:hasRootNode <http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList>;
   knora-base:listNodePosition 4;
   rdfs:label "List015"@en .
+
+<http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList031> a knora-base:ListNode;
+  knora-base:listNodeName "child of node 3";
+  knora-base:hasRootNode <http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList>;
+  knora-base:listNodePosition 0;
+  rdfs:label "child of node 3"@en .
   
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/webapi/src/main/scala/org/knora/webapi/responders/admin/ListsResponderADM.scala b/webapi/src/main/scala/org/knora/webapi/responders/admin/ListsResponderADM.scala
index 3b0287a5ba..aa3dbe9151 100644
--- a/webapi/src/main/scala/org/knora/webapi/responders/admin/ListsResponderADM.scala
+++ b/webapi/src/main/scala/org/knora/webapi/responders/admin/ListsResponderADM.scala
@@ -1794,14 +1794,20 @@ class ListsResponderADM(responderData: ResponderData) extends Responder(responde
         }
 
         // shift the siblings that were positioned after the deleted node, one place to left.
-        updatedChildren <- shiftNodes(
-          startPos = positionOfDeletedNode + 1,
-          endPos = remainingChildren.last.position,
-          nodes = remainingChildren,
-          shiftToLeft = true,
-          dataNamedGraph = dataNamedGraph,
-          featureFactoryConfig = featureFactoryConfig
-        )
+        updatedChildren <- if (remainingChildren.size > 1) {
+          for {
+            shiftedChildren <- shiftNodes(
+              startPos = positionOfDeletedNode + 1,
+              endPos = remainingChildren.last.position,
+              nodes = remainingChildren,
+              shiftToLeft = true,
+              dataNamedGraph = dataNamedGraph,
+              featureFactoryConfig = featureFactoryConfig
+            )
+          } yield shiftedChildren
+        } else {
+          Future.successful(remainingChildren)
+        }
 
         // return updated parent node with shifted children.
         updatedParentNode = parentNode match {
diff --git a/webapi/src/test/scala/org/knora/webapi/e2e/admin/lists/DeleteListItemsRouteADME2ESpec.scala b/webapi/src/test/scala/org/knora/webapi/e2e/admin/lists/DeleteListItemsRouteADME2ESpec.scala
index c932ae9fdd..53aea57f5e 100644
--- a/webapi/src/test/scala/org/knora/webapi/e2e/admin/lists/DeleteListItemsRouteADME2ESpec.scala
+++ b/webapi/src/test/scala/org/knora/webapi/e2e/admin/lists/DeleteListItemsRouteADME2ESpec.scala
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ class DeleteListItemsRouteADME2ESpec
         val lastChild = children.last
         lastChild.id should be("http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList03")
         lastChild.position should be(1)
+        lastChild.children.size should be(1)
         // first child must have its child
         val firstChild = children.head
         firstChild.children.size should be(5)
@@ -126,26 +127,39 @@ class DeleteListItemsRouteADME2ESpec
         )
       }
 
-      "delete a list entirely with all its children" in {
-        val encodedNodeUrl = java.net.URLEncoder.encode("http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList", "utf-8")
+      "delete the single child of a node" in {
+        val encodedNodeUrl = java.net.URLEncoder.encode("http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList031", "utf-8")
         val request = Delete(baseApiUrl + s"/admin/lists/" + encodedNodeUrl) ~> addCredentials(
           BasicHttpCredentials(anythingAdminUserCreds.user.email, anythingAdminUserCreds.password))
         val response: HttpResponse = singleAwaitingRequest(request)
         response.status should be(StatusCodes.OK)
-        val deletedStatus = AkkaHttpUtils.httpResponseToJson(response).fields("deleted")
-        deletedStatus.convertTo[Boolean] should be(true)
+        val node = AkkaHttpUtils.httpResponseToJson(response).fields("node").convertTo[ListNodeADM]
+        node.getNodeId should be("http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList03")
+        val children = node.getChildren
+        children.size should be(0)
+      }
+    }
 
-        clientTestDataCollector.addFile(
-          TestDataFileContent(
-            filePath = TestDataFilePath(
-              directoryPath = clientTestDataPath,
-              filename = "delete-list-response",
-              fileExtension = "json"
-            ),
-            text = responseToString(response)
-          )
+    "delete a list entirely with all its children" in {
+      val encodedNodeUrl = java.net.URLEncoder.encode("http://rdfh.ch/lists/0001/notUsedList", "utf-8")
+      val request = Delete(baseApiUrl + s"/admin/lists/" + encodedNodeUrl) ~> addCredentials(
+        BasicHttpCredentials(anythingAdminUserCreds.user.email, anythingAdminUserCreds.password))
+      val response: HttpResponse = singleAwaitingRequest(request)
+      response.status should be(StatusCodes.OK)
+      val deletedStatus = AkkaHttpUtils.httpResponseToJson(response).fields("deleted")
+      deletedStatus.convertTo[Boolean] should be(true)
+
+      clientTestDataCollector.addFile(
+        TestDataFileContent(
+          filePath = TestDataFilePath(
+            directoryPath = clientTestDataPath,
+            filename = "delete-list-response",
+            fileExtension = "json"
+          ),
+          text = responseToString(response)
         )
-      }
+      )
     }
+
   }
 }