This paper takes a comparative look at the development of preschools and kindergartens in Western Europe. Although preschool attendance has now become a normal part of children’s life-course over the whole of Western Europe, countries have taken different paths at varied speeds to reach this common point. Kindergarten pioneers as well as late developers are identified. Until the 1960s, the most powerful driver of preschool development was competition over pedagogical hegemony between State and Church.