The village's fortifications were destroyed by the French in 1689. The villagers then had to do compulsory labour, building the fort, Mont Royal. 1700 to 1900 In 1719, the municipal area and vineyard ownership were newly surveyed. It was determined that 15.5% belonged in ecclesiastical ownership, 39.7% in knightly ownership, 9.7% in other noblemen's hands and in private ownership a mere 28.6%. From 1772 to 1774, Saint Martin's Church, the one that still stands now, was built, and in 1780 an organ was built in. In 1784, Briedel had 732 inhabitants, namely 144 fathers, 160 mothers, 210 sons, 197 daughters, 6 menservants and 15 maidservants. Moreover, the village had 142 buildings with a worth of 37,900 Reichstaler. Beginning in 1794, Briedel lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. 1900 to present From 1902 to 1905, the Moselle Valley Railway (Moseltalbahn) was built, known in the local speech as the Saufbähnchen ("Little Guzzling Railway"). In 1939, 1,887 people lived in Briedel. Since 1946, Briedel has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The Maiermund housing development sprang up on cleared swathes of the Briedeler Hecke after the Second World War in the course of the housing development movement. In 1969, administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate put Briedel in the new Cochem-Zell district. In 1991, a lady from Briedel named Bettina Fischer became the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Regional "Wine Queen"; the following year she also became "German Wine Princess". Politics Municipal council The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results: Mayor Briedel's mayor is Thomas Steinbach. Coat of arms The German blazon reads: In Silber ein rotes Kreuz, bewinkelt im ersten und vierten Felde von grünen Rankenornamenten, im zweiten durch die Buchstaben BR und im dritten Feld eine grüne Weintraube. The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent a cross gules, in dexter chief and sinister base tendril patterns, in sinister chief the letters BR, and in dexter base a bunch of grapes on a vine palewise reversed, leafed of two and slipped, all vert. The old 1518 seal used by the court of Schöffen (roughly "lay jurists") served as the model