This paper offers an overview of regional social movements that publicly criticised juvenile institutions in West Germany, Austria and Switzerland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Focusing on the “Heimkampagnen”, i.e. public campaigns against such institutions located in the German state of Hesse, in Vienna / Upper Austria and Zurich, it provides a comparative view as to the initiating moments, key actors, articulated demands, forms of action, political and administrative reactions and longer-term effects on child and youth welfare. The article provides a preliminary base for research on transnational contextualisations of campaigns against juvenile institutions in German-speaking Europe.