Dedicated to Professor Hubert Schmidbaur on the occasion of his 75 th birthday2-Phenoxy-1,3,2-diazaphospha-[3]ferrocenophane and related derivatives (oxide, sulfide, selenide) were prepared, characterized in solution by multinuclear magnetic resonance methods (1D and 2D 1 H, 13 C, 15 N and 31 P NMR) and in the solid state by X-ray structural analysis. The conformation of the 2-phenoxy derivative differs from that of the 2-tert-butyl compound. For further comparison, 2-R-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaphospha-phenalene derivatives R = t Bu, PhO were prepared and studied by the same NMR techniques. The molecular structure of a selenide was determined, and together with the NMR evidence, it was concluded that the conformation of these heterocycles is independent of the respective substituent at the phosphorus atom.