It doesn't sound like it. Conspiracy means there's documented evidence of a plan and motive to commit a crime. This doesn't seem like it meets that standard.

The difference in regards to a conspiracy charge is that you don't need a conspiracy behind it.

In Germany, there are actually 18 different laws regarding this, since that part of the law is federated. So each state of Germany (plus the federal police and the federal criminal police) has it's own law regarding under what circumstances they are allowed to arrest someone before they committed a crime and for how long.

Originally, these laws had two purposes:

• Stop someone from committing a serious crime
• Stop someone from doing harm to themselves

And as such, these laws used to have tight limits on when they can apply and for how long people are allowed to be arrested.

A case could be made for these laws. E.g. if someone announces online that they are going to shoot kids at a school, it would be totally justified to quickly bag that guy before he kills children. Waiting for a court order might not be fast enough to save the would-be victims.

But then they started to expand the reasons why someone can be arrested and for how long.

In Bavaria, for example, it's enough that someone carries items that can be used for criminal purposes. And there they can jail people for up to two months without a charge.

There have been cases where someone was put in jail for two months for carrying items like crowbars or ropes in their backpacks.