With the introduction of Section 46a of the Criminal Code, new possibilities for considering the offender's restitution payments in the context of sentencing have been created, which have so far been little utilized in practice. The starting point of the dissertation is that the low practical relevance is at least partly due to the lack of a general understanding of how the (partial) waiver of punishment resulting from the offender's restitution payments can be explained in relation to traditional sentencing purposes, and how the provisions of Section 46a of the Criminal Code should be interpreted on this basis. Against this background, Susanne Pielsticker integrates the provision into the system of sentencing purposes. She then makes the understanding gained from this integration useful for interpreting its individual requirements. As a result, both an interpretation of the provision and its application are achieved.