Let be the universal covering map. Since the complex plane is a simply connected domain, the lifting criterion for a covering space gives a holomorphic lift between one-dimensional complex tori such that
For every , the difference belongs to the discrete period lattice . It depends continuously on , so it is constant. Differentiating shows that the derivative is -periodic. It is bounded on the compact closure of a fundamental parallelogram, and periodicity makes it bounded on all of . The Liouville theorem therefore makes constant, and hence
Thus every holomorphic map has an affine lift of a holomorphic map between one-dimensional complex tori. If “map of complex tori” means an identity-preserving map, choose ; then , so is the required linear map. Without that convention the statement must say affine, since a nonzero translation in a group of the torus lifts to .
The Weierstrass elliptic function of is
The subtracted term gives the Normal convergence of the Weierstrass elliptic-function series away from . Put
The Laurent coefficients of the Weierstrass elliptic function at zero give
Set and . Direct substitution shows that the principal part and constant term of
vanish at zero. Since is an elliptic function, translation gives the same cancellation at every point of the period lattice. Every apparent isolated singularity is therefore a removable singularity, so is an entire function. It is periodic and hence bounded on the translates of a compact fundamental parallelogram. The Liouville theorem gives , which proves the Weierstrass elliptic differential equation
Finally suppose that is a biholomorphic group homomorphism. Its identity-preserving lift has the form by the first part. Since the inverse map also lifts linearly,
Choose a -basis of . Multiplication by is then represented by a unimodular matrix . As a real-linear transformation of , it has determinant ; hence and . The characteristic polynomial of and the Cayley-Hamilton theorem give
This already has the required form with and . Moreover , so forces . Thus is a root of unity, of order , , , , or , completing the description of an automorphism of a one-dimensional complex torus.