This may help. You can set configurations in the config editor - click settings>general and scroll down to bottom to config editor - Here are possible settings and the three config entries to adjust:

sort_type:
  byNone        17         byPriority    23      byLocation    29 
  byDate        18 *       byStatus      24       byTags        30 
  bySubject     19 *       bySize        25       byJunkStatus  31 
  byAuthor      20 *       byFlagged     26      byAttachments 32 
  byId          21 **      byUnread      27      byAccount     33 
  byThread      22         byRecipient   28      byCustom      34 
    * = commonly desired values
   ** = by Order Received (?)

sort_order:
  ascending   1
  descending  2
  HERE ARE THE THREE SETTINGS: Set all three.
  mailnews.default_sort_type     18 (date)
  mailnews.default_sort_order    1-ascending, 2=descending 
  mailnews.default_view_flags    0=unthreaded, 1=threaded
  

This setting applies to all NEW folders, not existing ones.

Dear David,

Thank you for your answer. I was not quite clear in my description above. What I want to keep are the columns which I have in the folders and the order of the columns.

Kind regards,

Jens

I am not aware of any way to make columns a default for all columns, but you can assign a folder's setting to other folders. This page gives details: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/message-list-columns

Dear David,

Thank you again for your fast answer. The page link above is exactly what I am doing, but what I want to avoid is to apply the column layout to other folders: I like to have a folder configuration setting/template which can be used to create new folders.

Thanks again,

Jens

I think this bug need to be dusted off. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=505035