Parent fulvenes and fulvalenes are thermallyu nstable cross-conjugated olefins for which lowtemperature syntheses are indispensable. In this review 5syntheses (inthe temperature range between À 100 and À 108)are discussed:1. Reaction of sodium cyclopentadienidew ith 1-acetoxy-1-chloroalkanes or 1-acetoxy-1-bromoalkanes (26)gives acetoxy-alkyl-cyclopentadienes (27)which are easily converted to pentafulvenes (2)by low-temperature HOAc-elimination with NEt 3 .T his synthesis has been applied to parent pentafulvene (2a), heptafulvene(3a), nonafulvene (4a)a nd sesquifulvalene (19a)(Schemes 8 -11).2. Based on an early quantitative oxidative coupling of cyclononatetraenide (8)t og ive dihydrononafulvalene (38)( Scheme 10), ag eneral synthetic plan for fulvalenes has been outlined (Scheme 11)a nd applied to the synthesis of pentafulvalene (12), nonapentafulvalene (16)a nd nonafulvalene (14). Several applications of oxidative couplings of Hückel anions are discussed (Schemes 20 and 21).3. Tr ifunctional cyclopropanes 67 (inm ost cases 1,1-dibromo-2-X-cyclopropanes) are attractive precursors of parent triafulvene (1a)a nd calicene (17)(Scheme 18). Contrary to classical procedures they are transformed into nucleophiles (67 ! 68)b yh alogen-lithium exchange,m ethylation( 68 ! 69) and HBr-eliminationt og ive 1-methylidene-2-X-cyclopropaneso ft ype 71.B ys ubsequentH Xeliminationtriafulvene (1a)has been synthesized and trapped as a[4þ2]-cycloadduct 73 (Scheme 20). Furthermore,c alicene precursors 77 are available by using cyclopentenone as an electrophilic cyclopentadiene equivalent.4. Similarly,1 -lithio-1-bromo-2-X-cyclopropanes 68 are directly transformed into triafulvalene precursors 81 (Scheme 26)b yanovel CuCl 2 -catalyzed oxidative coupling.5. In view of the synthesiso fp arent triafulvene( 1a), triafulvalene( 11)a nd calicene (17), retroDielsÀAlder reactionso fs table precursors -p repared by low-temperature reactions( described in chapters 3 and 4)-have been explored.