Improved syntheses for the five-membered heterocycles 2,3,4,5-tetraphenylthiophene-1-monoxide ( 1), 1,1-dichloro-2,3,4,5-tetraphenylgermole ( 3) and 1,1-dimethyl-2,3,4,5-tetraphenylgermole ( 4) are reported. They make use of bis(η 5-cyclopentadienyl)-2,3,4,5-tetraphenyl-1-zirconacyclopentadiene ( 2), easily prepared in a one-step reaction from Cp 2ZrCl 2, nBuLi and diphenylethyne. Further reaction of 2 with SOCl 2, GeCl 4 or Me 2GeCl 2 yields the desired products and allows recovery of Cp 2ZrCl 2. Crystal structure analyses of 1 and 4 demonstrate folded five-membered rings with a diene system. Starting from 3 the following derivatives have been synthesized: Ph 4C 4Ge(CCR) 2 (R H, tBu, Ph), Ph 4C 4GeCl[FeCp(CO) 2] ( 10) and Ph 4C 4GeCl[WCp(CO) 3]. Moreover spectral data (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR) of all compounds and the crystal structure of 10 are reported.