I'd say maybe it was there on purpose to show the naivity of Daniel's character, but I guess that's unlikely since the director seems entirely sympathetic towards the trio.

of course it was a concious descision, the other guy has a tshirt on it that says air force academy or something like that. They're anti capitalist/idealist twentysomethings, shirts like that are just part of the mis en scene.
done.

I mentioned this before, in Germany it's VERY common for anti-fascists/anti-globalists, etc. to wear army style clothes. It's a means of taking the army's symbols and giving them a new meaning. Especially in the 70s and 80s, the "Bundeswehrparka" was almost a sort of uniform for leftwingers, albeit with the German flag taken off.

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You are living under the Spanish Government??? wow I'm surprised Zapatero let's you use internet under the terrible oppression - you writing from a resistance hide out??? Keep safe from the oppressors and their t-shirts

Don't you think Jan bought it in second-hand clothes shop?

I Agree with you. I felt very uncomfortable every time I noticed that Spanish shirt. Some people living under the Spanish government (the basque and the Catalan, like me)do not feel any kind of sympathy towards Spanish army and this detail ruined,in someway, the whole movie.
Beside this I love the film!

I agree. I spotted it. It seemed very out of place.
No real anticapitalist antiglobalist person would wear this shirt. Daniel Bruhe should have tipped off the costume department.
Likewise, the other guy wears a blue shirt with "AIR FORCE ACADEMY" on it. Another odd choice for an anticapitalist.
But the Ejercito one, especially with the big right-wing Spanish escudo in the middle, is quite out of character.

That is what I thought. This was harkening back to the civil war in spain and the idealogical fight and struggle that used up many of europe's idealists before the onset of the second world war.

i'm watching "good bye lenin" this week and will tell you if i notice it. in the meantime, ejercito definitely means "army." it could also perhaps refer to the republican army/militia during the spanish civil war, which stood for collectivization and socialism. this would correlate well with jan's beliefs. watch land and freedom, la lengua de las mariposas, or silencio roto. most people remain pretty clueless about the spanish civil war, and it's impact on the world during the second world war.

Hi, maybe someone may confirm this. Haven't we seen that same t-shirt in "Good Bye Lenin", in some short scene maybe?

"they" wear army clothes because they're preparing for the revolutionand they're good clothes.

Well Google automatic translation doesn't exactly works well.
It could give you and idea but it lacks the comprehension.
Ejercito, could mean "I excercise", but Ejrcito, notice the accent over the "e" means "army".
You probably are thinking "I didn't see any E with accent".
Well sometimes and in some spanish countries when all the text is in uppercase, they take out the accent.
Hope this clarify the "I excercise". By the way, I use "Yo hago ejercicios" rather than "Yo ejercito".
Don't trust Google translation tool too much, is just a machine, not a translator

But Google says "ejercito" means "I exercise".
So why should it be a mistake? Even it can mean both, exercise AND army.

so at least they must have known what kind of shirt it was

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But who chose that shirt for "Jan"? Did Daniel bring it himself?

thankyou :))

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I guess he has the german nationality too but he is spanish in the first place.
I just saw an interview with him and when he was asked where he felt most at home, he distinctly said Cologne. That's where he spent most of his life. He also said his new home was Berlin.
When asked whether he felt Spanish or German, he said he considered himself European and that he thinks it's sort of cute how the Spanish just pretend he's completely Spanish, calling him a Catalan actor.
He simply is both, German and Spanish, whether you like it or not.

Canada is another.

Australia too, with conditions.
http://www.acacia-au.com/australian-citizenship.php
read the section under the 'Birth In Australia' header.

And most countries in Europe simply
do not have
naturalization by birth; I know third generations in Switzerland who still aren't legal citizens. I think that the US and Mexico might actually be the only countries in the world where being born there makes you an automatic citizen.
Weil die meisten Menschen nur glcklich sind, wenn sie sich stndig was Neues kaufen knnen, zum Beispiel.