John Motz

John Motz (middle) in front of the Berliner Journal printing office, c. 1889. He stands with William John Motz (third left) and Friedrich Rittinger (third right).[5]

Motz achieved Canadian naturalization in December 1858.[6] That same year, he began attending a Berlin grammar school to master the English language and train for a teaching career.[2] He abandoned his teaching pursuits after he struck a friendship with fellow German immigrant Friedrich Rittinger,[7] the printing manager of two Berlin newspapers, the German-language Der Deutsche Canadier and the English-language Telegraph.[2] The two hoped to operate a German-language newspaper and negotiated for purchase of Der Deutsche Canadier. After its owner refused to sell, the two founded the Berliner Journal in 1859.[7] Rittinger provided technical expertise as printer and technical manager, while Motz served as the newspaper's editor, writer and business manager.[2]

While Berlin's English language papers wrote about Canadian and municipal political news,[8] Motz focused the Journal's coverage on issues concerning local German Canadians,[2] especially foreign news and local German culture.[9] The Journal quickly became successful,[3] and remained so over several decades,[2] something scholar Herbert Karl Kalbfleisch credits to the strong combination of Rittinger's expertise as a technical director and Motz's "facile pen".[3]

As the paper's editor, Motz believed it important for the press and social organizations to cooperate on shared causes, evidenced by the Journal pushing for German to be taught in Ontario schools and the promotion of German cultural events.[10][note 2] In an 1859 editorial, Motz called for religious tolerance and freedom, writing he intended to keep the Journal out of religious matters.[12] He further explained he intended the newspaper to be neutral in discussion of politics, though slightly leaning towards the Reform Party.[13] In other pieces, he encouraged the paper's readers to be politically active and provided instructions on how to become a British subject so that they may vote.[14] Despite his promise to be generally neutral in political discussions, the paper reliably supported the policies of the Reform Party's successor, the Liberal Party.[13][15] As anti-liberal trends expanded in Germany in the end of the 19th century, he critiqued the German government's actions,[16] especially the lack of both parliamentary rights and freedom of speech.[17]

A bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Berlin's Victoria Park, 1905. Motz served on the committee which led its 1897 dedication.

Motz was a community leader in Berlin, engaged in local politics.[7] He served on the boards of multiple local businesses and was appointed chairman of the Berlin Free Library's board of management,[2] holding the position from 1888 through 1889.[18] As a publisher of the Berliner Journal, he was active with both the German Canadian Press Association and the Canadian Press Association, becoming the former's president in 1872.[2] He was first elected to public office in 1870 or 1871,[19] serving on the Berlin Town Council, as well as being elected deputy reeve.[2][note 3] The death of Berlin mayor Louis Breithaupt in July 1880 necessitated a new election, which Motz won. Motz won re-election in January 1881, serving for the remainder of the year.[20] Involved in national politics, Motz was politically active with the Reform party, serving as vice-president and later president of the Reform Association of North Waterloo.[7] From the late 1890s through the early 1900s, he exchanged letters with Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, many of which were regarding patronage.[2]

Motz participated in local children's charities, including founding and serving as president of the St. Boniface Sick Society.[2] He was a member of the local Concordia Club and the Horticultural Society, the former dedicated to the promotion of German culture, especially its language, customs and music. Serving on the high school board in 1881, Motz used his editorship to promote the teaching of the German language in local schools.[2][note 4] Following the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, Motz, along with community leader and future Waterloo North MP Hugo Kranz, founded a "German patriotic relief organization", which raised one thousand dollars towards "the wounded and widows and orphans of the German armies".[23] In 1897, the Concordia Club planned celebrations for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the end of the war,[24] planning to dedicate a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Berlin's Victoria Park.[25] Several community leaders served on the monument committee, including manufacturer George Rumpel, Deutsche Zeitung editor Hans Sikorski and Concordia Club president Karl Müller,[24] while Motz served as the committee's president.[26] Government support for the project was strong, Laurier ensuring the bust entered Canada duty-free.[27] At the 13 August unveiling, Motz spoke of the importance of cultivating the German language in local schools and churches.[28] He emphasized that, in order to be a good Canadian citizen, one needed to honour the customs of one's mother country. He expressed that while the celebrants honoured "the land of our birth and its famous Emperor ... [they were] good citizens of Canada and loyal subjects of Queen Victoria ... [who] did not wish to establish a sectional state in this land".[29] He concluded saying: "We want to be what we have always been; we want to be hard-working, honourable men, peaceful, law-abiding citizens, and loyal subjects of the Dominion of Canada."[30] Scholar Gottlieb Leibbrandt writes the speech had a considerable impact in the town, with Motz's Journal reporting it "went to the very marrow".[28]