The extraction of earth alkaline and alkali metals (Ca, Mg, K, Na), heavy metals (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) and Al by 1 M NH 4 NO 3 and 0.5 M NH 4 Cl was compared for soil samples (texture: silt loam, clay loam) with a wide range of pH(CaCl 2 ) and organic carbon (OC) from a forest area in W Germany. For each of these elements, close and highly significant correlations could be observed between the results from both methods in organic and mineral soil horizons. The contents of the base cations were almost convertible one-to-one. However, for all heavy metals NH 4 Cl extracted clearly larger amounts, which was mainly due to their tendency to form soluble chloro complexes with chloride ions from the NH 4 Cl solution. This tendency is very distinct in the case of Cd, Pb, and Fe, but also influences the results of Mn and Zn. In the case of Cd and Mn, and to a lower degree also in the case of Pb, Fe, and Zn, the effect of the chloro complexes shows a significant pH dependency. Especially for Cd, but also for Pb, Fe, Mn, Zn, the agreement between both methods increased, when pH(CaCl 2 ) values and/or contents of OC were taken into account. In comparison to NH 4 Cl, NH 4 NO 3 proved to be chemically less reactive and, thus, more suitable for the extraction of comparable fractions of mobile heavy metals. Since both methods lead to similar and closely correlated results with regard to base cations and Al, the use of NH 4 NO 3 is also recommended for the extraction of mobile/exchangeable alkali, earth alkaline, and Al ions in soils and for the estimation of their contribution to the effective cationexchange capacity (CEC). Consequently, we suggest to determine the mobile/exchangeable fraction of all elements using the NH 4 NO 3 method. However, the applicability of the NH 4 NO 3 method to other soils still needs to be investigated.