Hello! I am trying to include a JSP page that contains commonly used html/java code, into another JSP page multiple times using the jsp include directive.

I found out the answer myself on the web. Hope that my question and answer can be of use by others.

The error I mention in my question is caused by a bug in the Tomcat release included with WAS 3.5.3. The bug occured when a bug-fix was introduced that was intended to fix a problem that occurs if two JSP pages include each other. By upgrading WAS to 3.5.5 the problem is gone!