A study of the generalized Weierstrass system which can be used to induce mean curvature surfaces in three-dimensional Euclidean space is presented. A specific transformation is obtained which reduces the initial system to a twodimensional Euclidean nonlinear sigma model. Some aspects of integrability are discussed, in particular, a connection with a version of the sinh-Gordon equation is established. Finally, some specific solutions are given and a systematic way of calculating multisoliton solutions is presented.