Blanca Knodel has been the tower keeper of the Blue Tower in Bad Wimpfen for 27 years. In 1996, she and her three children became the first women to move into a tower. While the previous tower keepers had to ring the bell and keep an eye out for enemies and fires, Blanca's job today is straightforward: she only lets tourists up the tower. A motion detector announces every visit, often every second at weekends and on public holidays. Blanca collects the entrance fees for the tower at her "toll booth". Blanca lives rent-free and receives a share of the income. It doesn't make her rich, but she loves her job: "The whole world comes to me, I'm always happy to talk to people." And anyone who has climbed the 134 flights of stairs to Blanca's can also take a look inside her apartment from time to time. She proudly shows off her 53 m² - a kind of medieval tiny house. Blanca comes from one of the oldest families in Bad Wimpfen. The Blue Tower means home to her and living there has always been a lifelong dream. When the opportunity arose in 1996, Blanca applied to become a tower keeper - her children were also enthusiastic. She and her children moved from a six-room apartment to the one-room apartment in the tower: It was a real change for her and her children - aged 8, 9 and 11 at the time. "When I moved in here, it was just a big, white room with bare walls," she says. But Blanca is inventive - she puts up walls and false floors in her 800-year-old tiny house. The result: a four-square-metre children's room for her son and a six-metre-wide bunk bed for her two daughters. There were no problems with the conversions due to the listed building status, as only the tower is protected - Blanca can freely design her apartment. "Everything was planned down to the last centimeter," she laughs. "Of course it was difficult from time to time, especially during puberty or the menopause, but we all survived. When it was really stressful, I just climbed up my tower and everything was half as bad." Shopping in particular is now a challenge. At 72, climbing stairs is becoming increasingly difficult for Blanca. She often asks visitors for help. They carry her shopping up to the third floor, where there is a freight elevator that is operated manually with a crank. "I try not to go downstairs so often, now only two or three times a week. Everything is just slower." And an old building like this also has its pitfalls: the tower walls are three meters thick at the bottom and only one meter at the top. "An 800-year-old building is naturally not insulated, so it often gets very cold in the tower in winter and really hot in summer." Today, the tower is heated with night storage heaters. The age of the tower is also noticeable in the building fabric. In 2017, Blanca had to leave her tower and go into "exile" - the tower had cracks and needed to be renovated. In 2022, after five long years, she was finally able to return to her beloved tower. "I'm so happy to finally be back here. It's very special for me to be able to live here and, as the tower keeper, to be a part of this city's history." A film by Marina Schulz (editor), Oleg Kauz, Lukas Steinki (camera), Daniele Guida (sound) and Daniela Schramm Moura (editor). 00:00 Tiny House in the tower 00:46 Box office / entrance 01:44 Dining room 03:22 Living area 04:48 Bedroom 06:00 Former children's room 07:10 Office 08:57 Kitchen 11:03 Bathroom 13:02 Viewing platform