The place of his birth has been of some contention with historians ranging speculation from Siegerland, then County of Nassau, Holy Roman Empire to Lower Saxony, or hailing from the Dutch Republic.

[7] During the Grand Embassy of Peter I in 1697, General Admiral Franz Lefort invited Gennin to join the Russian Imperial army.

[6] In 1713 Gennin would begin managing the iron foundries of Olonets and modernized the weapon factories of Povenetsky Uyezd, Koncheozersky, and Petrovsky.

His success would see him awarded the rank of Major General in 1722 and an order to relocate to the Ural region and sort out the conflict between Vasily Tatischev and Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov.

Kellner photographed not only on site in Russia, but also in the surrounding area of Siegen to capture the connection between the two regions in the processing of steel and metal.