A: 

Wouldn't this work?

<title><spring:message code="page.manufacturer.list.title" /></title>
JoseK
For one page, yes - but I was looking for a general approach, where the spring message can be transferred from several pages (each having a different spring message) to the one template page. I have edited the question to clarify this aspect.
simon
A: 

Pass it (in)directly as request parameter. Really, there's no better way since HTTP is stateless. Putting it in session without a request parameter based key may work for single tab/window, but it may end up in undesired results when using multiple tabs/windows in same browser session.

BalusC
A: 

mylayout.jsp

<html>
  <head>
    <title><tiles:getAsString name="title"/></title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <tiles:insertAttribute name="body" />
  </body>
</html>

somepage.jsp

<tiles:insertDefinition name="mylayout">
<spring:message code="example.message" var="title"/>
<tiles:putAttribute name="title" value="${title}"/>
<tiles:putAttribute name="body">

...

</tiles:putAttribute>
</tiles:insertDefinition>
anthavio