Under the provisions of Federal German law applicable on July 1, 1990 (not the law of the “Acceding Territory”—i.e., the former GDR), the number of months of FPL credits that could be taken into account in determining the pension payable to a person living outside Germany could not exceed the number of months of coverage completed by the person in Germany.  A person outside Germany who had little or no coverage in Germany, therefore, received little benefit from §17a.  By allowing a person to pay retroactive voluntary contributions, Paragraph 8 allowed such a person to increase the number of months of FPL credits that were taken into account in determining the pension amount payable abroad.  Since the primary purpose of this provision was to allow payment of benefits based on section §17a, Paragraph 8(b) stipulates that voluntary contributions are only permitted for as many months as needed to allow full payment abroad of the pension based on §17a credits.