The band comprised of Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson -attended the awards ceremony in Dusseldorf where they picked up the gong for their contribution to music, reported Daily Mail online.
They later took to Twitter to share their joy.
"Thank you so much Germany for the Bambi award! It means a lot. We had fun tonight," Styles posted.
Horan added, "Wow! Just won favourite international artist at the bambis in Dusseldorf. Thank you Germany."
Other winners included Mexican star Salma Hayek, who won in the Film International category and Celine Dion, who picked up her third Bambi, after being nominated in the Entertainment section.
German rapper Cro received the Pop National award with Austrian singer Andreas Gabalier picking up the Bambi for Shooting Star 2012.
Austrian Felix Baumgartner, whose skydive from space set a new record for a live event on YouTube with over eight million views recently- picked up a special Millennium Bambi for his stunt.