Among the best known is the patriotic "Das Lied der Deutschen" which starts with the words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" and is set to a 1797 tune by Joseph Haydn. The lyrics were written in 1841 on the island of Helgoland, then in British possession. The text of the song expresses the pan-German sentiments common in revolutionary republicans of the period and were highly inflammatory in the princedoms of the German-speaking world. This sentiment was, of course, considered high treason. The phrase "über alles" did not refer to militant ideas of conquest of foreign countries, but to the need for loyalty to a united Germany to replace all other regional loyalties.