RacemicN-(chlorodimethylgermylmethyl)-4-phenyl-2-pyrrolidone and the first optically active amide derivatives containing the asymmetrical carbon atom and the five-coordinate germanium atom,viz.,N-(chlorodimethylgermylmethyl)- andN-(bromodimethylgermyl-methyl)-N-[(S)-1-phenylethyl] acetamides, were synthesized. Their structures were established by X-ray diffraction analysis. The geometric characteristics of the trigonal-bipyramidal valence environment about the germanium atoms are compared with those of analogous enantiomeric silicon compounds and the related five-coordinate germanium compounds. The barriers to permutational isomerization of the title compounds were determined by dynamic1H NMR spectroscopy. It was found that these barriers are higher than those of the corresponding silicon analogs.