Differential geometry and minimal surfaces (Q5906495)

This is an elementary introduction to Differential Geometry. It is written for students who have finished the usual three semester course in Analysis at a German university. Disregarding language barriers, it could serve as a textbook for last year undergraduates at an American university. Unusual for an elementary textbook is a long chapter on minimal surfaces with a discussion of the Weierstrass representation, the Plateau problem, the Bernstein theorem, and the maximum principle (the last one without a proof). There is also an appendix on harmonic functions. The rest of the book is similar to other textbooks on the market with a discussion of the Theorema egregium, geodesics, and the Gauss-Bonnet theorem. One might miss some of the global theorems in other textbooks, but the chapter on minimal surfaces is certainly an excellent compensation.