Herbicidally active 3-amino-2-cyano-acrylic acid esters of the formula ##STR1## in which R.sup.1 represents alkoxyalkyl or benzyloxyalkylR.sup.2 represents alkyl or alkenyl,R.sup.3 represents hydrogen or alkyl,R.sup.4 represents hydrogen, or represents alkyl which is optionally substituted by hydroxyl, halogen, alkoxy or dialkylamino,X.sup.1 and X.sup.2 are identical or different and represent hydrogen, halogen, nitro, alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio, halogenoalkyl, halogenoalkoxy, amino, alkylamino, alkylcarbonylamino, N-alkylcarbonyl-N-alkylamino, dialkylaminocarbonylamino or in each case optionally substituted aryl or aryloxy, orX.sup.1 and X.sup.2 together with the adjacent phenyl radical represent naphthyl andm represents the number 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.Intermediates of the formula ##STR2## are also new.