Motz Family fonds

This collection was donated by the Motz family in 1991. It is made up of personal family papers and includes some items documenting the history of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. These latter materials complement the Kitchener-Waterloo Record's archives of over photographic negatives (1939-present) already housed in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room. Also available is a complete run of the Record's predecessor, the Berliner Journal,which is believed to have been the Motz family's personal copy.

The earliest Motz family member represented in this collection is John Motz, who emigrated to Canada from Diedorf in 1848 and in 1859 entered into partnership with Frederick Rittinger. They started the publishing firm known as "Rittinger & Motz" and published a series of newspapers beginning with the Berliner Journal, a weekly which ran from 1859 to 1899 and which has been described as the principal German newspaper in Canada.

John Motz's son, William J. Motz, joined the firm of Rittinger and Motz and became editor in 1911. The firm acquired the Kitchener News Record and later absorbed the Kitchener Telegraph and began a new paper called the Kitchener Record. A most interesting and important series of letters and documents in his papers reveals controversies between Motz and his partner, Senator W. D. Euler in 1931 and 1932 regarding the acquisition of shares and control of the Record. Later a series of letters on a similar topic with his son, John E. Motz in 1946 documents Euler's removal from the paper.

Of particular interest in the papers of John E. Motz is the series of letters written to him and his wife by Father Hubert Gehl while Gehl was serving overseas in world War II.

This collection of papers, which measures 20 inches, outlines the history of the Motz family and the newspaper, concentrating mainly on the first three generations of the Motz family beginning with the birth of John Motz in 1830. The series of papers are arranged by individual family members while the Record materials are arranged by subject.

Call number: GA80

Special Collections

Motz Family fonds