The French Revolution, which broke out in 1789, made of Gillenfelders free citizens of the French Republic, which at first did nothing to change their lives. This, though, shortly thereafter changed when war broke out between the allied powers of Austria and Prussia on the one hand and France on the other and Gillenfeld began suffering the attendant troop movements. Beginning in 1804, Gillenfelders were for ten years citizens of the French Empire and lay under French hegemony. In 1814 and 1815 came the cession of the whole Eifel to Prussia, and the official language reverted from French to German once again. Between 1836 and 1884, there was a great wave of emigration from Gillenfeld to America and to French-conquered Algeria in which 126 people left their home village. In 1876 and 1887, the village was devastated by great fires. The first struck the Lower Village and the next the Upper Village. The founding of the volunteer fire brigade in 1880 may have been to thank for the 1887 fire's failure to reach the same proportions as the 1876 fire.