A department store in downtown Ulm was evacuated on Friday because of a suspicious item.
The police later gave the all-clear: There is no danger to the public, they said.
Concerned about possible imitators, a police spokesman did not want to announce exactly what kind of object it was.
In any case, it was a harmless one, he said.
Ulm - management and police had decided to evacuate the building as a precaution.
A little more than 100 people had to leave the department store according to the information.
Specialists from the State Office of Criminal Investigation in Baden-Württemberg then examined the suspicious object.
Whether this was deliberately placed to trigger a police operation is still the subject of the investigation, said the spokesman.
dpa