Where can I see that this is document is 'en_IE'?

Start "soffice.exe" as user and go to Extras - Optionen - Spracheinstellungen -
Sprachen - Standardsprachen der Dokumente. [in English: Tools - Options -
Language Settings - Language - Default Language for Documents]

(Comment: In practice, I install StarOffice in this way on a server and the
clients get a link to soffice.exe on their desktop. Doing it this way, I need
only one change for an update on a central place.)

I can't confirm. Done as you've descibed and I have 'Deutsch' as
'Standardsprachen der Dokumente'. I guess it belongs to your 'Regions- und
Sprachoption'. Could it be that you have changed something to en_IE there?

I have looked at XP "Regions- und Sprachoptionen" (I don't know the Englisch terms.)
In second tab "Sprachen" on button "Details" I've got an additional
keyboard-layout for Englisch (Irland), but that was not active during
installation and the default keyboard-layout is Deutsch.
In third tab "Erweitert" the entry "Englisch (Irland)" is selected for "Sprache
für Programme die Unicode nicht unterstützen". That might be the reason. But
nevertheless, a German version of OpenOffice.org should set German as default
language for documents.

@ sba: Please investigate.

@regina 
Can you still see the problem with 2.2RC?

Yes, the problem is still in 2.2rc.

@regina:
I would like to check and confirm (for WIN XP), but unfortunately I do not have
any idea what 'administrative mode' might mean. Can you recommend a brief guide
or contribute a short step by step instruction with commets so that it can be
understood by a "John Doe"-user?

(1)Download version 2.2
(2)Start Installation. It will begin with unpacking the file.
(3)Abort the installation wizard after the files are unpacked.
(4)Open WinXP command line (German: Start > Ausführen).
(5)Search for the file setup.exe in the folder into which OOo has been unpacked.
(6)Add Parameter -a to the command line. This will force an "administrative"
installation. Such installation will not change anything in the registry, but
only copy the OOo-files to a folder.
(7) Run "setup.exe -a".
(8) If you don't want, that OOo uses the user dictionary "OpenOffice.org2", you
must edit the file "bootstrap.ini" the "program"-folder. The error occurs
independently of that setting.
(9) Run soffice.exe out of the "program"-folder. This will generate the user-folder.
(10) Goto (German) Extras > Optionen > Spracheinstellungen > Sprachen. Notice,
that they are some "Standard" and for the field"Westlich" the choice
"Englisch(Irland)". The English OOo22rc versions had the same error.

For a German OOo version it should be "Deutsch (Deutschland)", for an standard
English version "English (US)".

I tried as listed in 'Additional comments from regina Thu Mar 29 20:02:33 +0000
2007'. I installed the new RC4 into the folder where I had RC3. The problem did
NOT appear, I had German as standard language as expected for my new "2.2.0RC4 
German version WIN XP: [680m14(Build9134)]".

Looks like duplicate to issue 62055?

I found the reason for not remembering the settings and using wrong defaults. It
is the file <installpath>\share\registry\data\org\openoffice\Office\Linguistic.xcu
I'll attach it. It was changed by installing a French dictionary.

Deleting that file solves the problem.

See also issue 72957.

*** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 72957 ***

Created attachment 44995 [details]
file after installing dictinary

The Issue you raised has been marked as 'Resolved' and not updated within the
last 1 year+. I am therefore setting this issue to 'Verified' as the first step
towards Closing it. If you feel this is incorrect, please re-open the issue and
add any comments.

Many thanks,
Andrew
 
Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues
~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~
http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html

As per previous posting: Verified -> Closed.
A Closed Issue is a Happy Issue (TM).

Regards,
Andrew