In the spring of 1869 he moved to Berlin, where he initially worked in a sculptor's workshop and from autumn studied sculpting at the Prussian Academy of Arts under the tutelage of Eduard Holbein [de], Carl Domschke, Friedrich Eggers and Karl Geppert.

The firm also took on commissions abroad, and it was through Ende & Böckmann that Volz came to Riga in the autumn of 1875 to work on the sculptural decoration of a large tenement house (on the present-day address Krišjāņa Barona iela 12).

[6] Volz spent the rest of his life in Riga apart from the years of World War I, when he and his family were obliged to go into exile in the small town of Tsivilsk.

A memorial plaque was put up in 1996 at the site where Volz' workshop was located for many years on the present-day address Krišjāņa Valdemāra iela 31.

[8] Volz established himself in Riga at a time of great economic expansion of the old Hanseatic town, which was a major port of the Russian Empire.

[12] Although his firm took on commissions ranging from simple structural elements such as stairs and columns to facades and interiors, portraits, memorial plaques and reliefs, Volz' arguably finest works were freestanding sculpture in the round in the form of free-standing monuments or architectural decoration.

[12] A question of dispute is how much the workshop of Volz contributed to providing sculptural elements for the extraordinary flowering of Art Nouveau architecture in Riga.

[15] One of the first prestigious commissions given to Volz was the decoration of the Nativity Cathedral, designed by architect Robert Pflug in a Byzantine Revival style and built in 1876–1884; it is the largest Russian Orthodox Church in the Baltic states.

[16] One of Riga's most iconic buildings, the House of the Blackheads, underwent a significant alteration to designs by architect Heinrich Scheel in 1886 and Volz was responsible for the extensive sculptural decoration.

[20] The present-day Art Academy of Latvia (built as a commercial school) also has capitals designed by Volz in a Neo-Gothic style, as well as reliefs and other forms of sculptural decoration.

The original statue was severely damaged during World War II and later moved out during the Soviet occupation of Latvia, it was partially fixed by Estonian sculptor Marija Ehelaide in 1970 and transferred to St. Peter's Church in 1984.

[24] The workshop of Volz also designed a similar statue of a knight for the Bastejkalns park (destroyed) and sculptures of lions in the Vērmanes Garden.