The village was struck hard by the events of the Thirty Years' War, not only by the warfare waged then, but also by the Plague. On several occasions it was reported that Breitenbach had been destroyed and that only a few people there had survived the war. Slowly, the village was built up again. In 1675, there were once more nine families living in the village, who then faced further warfare with King Louis XIV's wars of conquest. What can be assumed, though, is that the repopulation efforts were promoted by the French, who saw to it that the newcomers were mainly Catholic. Clearly, many came, for in the late 17th century, the village's population rose fivefold. In 1765, the Bamberger Hof on the road to Waldmohr came into being, at first a small settlement with two houses, but which grew over time into a village within the village, especially once the road was expanded. As a result of the French Revolution, the rule of the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken came to an end. In 1793, the first French Revolutionary troops showed up. In 1801, France annexed the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank. During the short period of French rule leading up to 1814, Breitenbach lay in the "Mairie" (“Mayoralty”) of Waldmohr and the Canton of Waldmohr as well as the Arrondissement of Saarbrücken and the Department of Sarre, whose seat was at Trier.