Born near Mühlhausen in the Province of Saxony, Prussia (today part of Thuringia, Germany), he immigrated to Berlin, Canada West (now Kitchener, Ontario) in 1848.

Motz served as its editor for the next forty years before retiring in 1899, becoming the honorary sheriff of Waterloo County, a position he held until his death in 1911.

He landed in Quebec City in June 1848 and joined his sister in the heavily German town of Berlin, Canada West.

[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 [de],[7] the printing manager of two Berlin newspapers, the German-language Der Deutsche Canadier and the English-language Telegraph.

[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".

[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.

[2][note 3] The death of Berlin mayor Louis Breithaupt in July 1880 necessitated a new election, which Motz won.

[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.

[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".