The formation of BaCeO3 by a co-precipitation method is described herein. The co-precipitation route leads to an orange (BaCe)-precursor powder (1). To improve the sintering behaviour, a small amount of Ge4+ was incorporated, leading to a (BaCe0.95/Ge-0.05)-precursor (2). Both precursor powders results in fine-grained preceramic powders (1A, 2A) after calcination. The shrinkage and sintering behaviour of resulting powder compacts were studied in comparison to a coarse-grained mixed-oxide BaCeO3 powder (3). Compacts of 2A reach a relative density of 90% after sintering at 1350 A degrees C with grain sizes between 0.9 and 3.2 mu m. On the other hand ceramics of 1A and 3 have, after sintering at 1500 A degrees C (10 h), relative densities of 85 and 76%, respectively. Ceramic bodies of 1A consisted of phase-pure orthorhombic BaCeO3, whereas bodies of 2A show reflections of BaCeO3 and a Ba2GeO4 phase. DTA investigations of samples 1A and 2A reveal three phase transitions at 255 A degrees C (1A) and 256 A degrees C (2A) as well as 383 A degrees C (1A) and 380 A degrees C (2A). A very weak one can be obtained in the range 880-910 A degrees C.