The music for the German national anthem was composed by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn in 1796-1797. The melody was originally written as the anthem "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God Save Emperor Francis") in honor of Emperor Francis II of Austria. The lyrics currently used for the German national anthem come from the third stanza of the "Deutschlandlied," a poem written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841, which was later set to Haydn's melody. This third stanza has been the official national anthem of Germany since reunification in 1990.