The hydrolytically stable trivalent, pentadentate amine alcohol ligands l,l-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-(2-hydroxy-5-R-benzyl)-1,4-diazabutane 2 (H3hebab-R; a: R = H, b: R = OMe, c: R = B r , d: R = N O z ) react with ammonium metavanadate to form the oxovanadium(V) complexes [VO(hebab-R)] 4, which have been characterized by 'H, 13C, and 'lV NMR, vibrational (IR, Raman, and resonance Raman) and electronic spectroscopy. According the high flexibility of the ligand systems the complexes 4 possess two different possible structures in solution. These two isomers differ in the ligand arrangement: fac-4 possesses a facial configuration of the phenolate oxygen and the two amine nitrogen donors with the 0x0 group trans to the tertiary amine nitrogen atom, whereas mer-4 is characterized by a meridional configuration of the phenolate oxygen and the two amine nitrogen donors with the 0x0 group trans to the secondary amine nitrogen atom. The two isomers are related by an isomerization equilibrium proceeding via a rotation about a pseudo C3 axis of the octahedral coordination environment. This isomerization mechanism seems to be of general importance, since it can also account for the solution structures of oxovanadium(V), cis-dioxovanadium(V) and cis-dioxomolybdenum(V1) complexes of flexible high-denticity ligand systems. The electronic influence of the para substituent at the phenolate on the isomerization reaction has been investigated by 51V NMR spectrnscopy. The Inhaltsiibersicht. Die hydrolytisch stabilen dreibasigen, funfzahnigen Aminoalkohole l,l-Bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-(2-hy-droxy-5-R-benzyl)-l,4-diazabutan 2 (H3hebab-R; a: R = H, b: R = OMe, c: R = Br, d: R = NOz) reagieren mit Ammoniummetavanadat zu den Oxovanadium(V)-Komplexen [VO(hebab-R)] 4, deren Charakterisierung mit Hilfe von 'H-, I3C-, 'lV-NMR-, Schwingungs-(IR, Raman und Resonanz-Raman) und Elektronenanregungsspektroskopie erfolgte. Entsprechend der ausgepragten Flexibilitat der Ligandsysteme werden fur die Komplexe 4 in Losung zwei Isomere beobachtet, die sich bezuglich der Konfiguration der Donorzentren unterscheiden: f a -4 besitzt eine faciale Konfiguration des Phenolatsauerstoffatoms und der beiden