Chelating polymers obtained by copolymerization of methacryloylmalodiethylester (MMDEt) with styrene, methylmethacrylate (MMA), N-vinylpyrrolidone (VPD) and N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAM) as well as the homopolymer of methacryloylmalodiethylester (MMDEt) have been investigated. Watersoluble chelating polymers derived from copolymerization with DMAM offer not only the possibility of a very fast removal of metal ions from aqueous solution, but are also insoluble after complexing certain metal ions and can therefore be separated by filtration. As additional investigations on the model acetyloylmalodiethylester (AMDEt) show, preferably hard metal ions such as Mg2+, Ca2+, Al3+ and Cu2+ with an ionic radius up to 1 A are chelated by the enolic form of the beta-ketodiester. The number of ligands for a metal ion corresponds to its valence.