A printing hammer driving apparatus for high-speed printers comprises a lever member acting as a hammer operating part, an armature forming a part of a magnetic circuit, and an electromagnet forming, together with the armature, the magnetic circuit. The lever member has a rotational supporting point at the base end thereof and is made of a light-weight non-magnetic material. The armature is projected in one of the rotational directions of the lever member from the intermediate part of the lever member. The electromagnet has at least one core and an exciting coil wound on the core. A core has a magnetic pole face perpendicular to the direction of attraction of the armature and a magnetic pole face parallel to the direction of attraction of the armature. The magnetic pole face perpendicular to the direction of armature attraction is opposed with a gap to the forward end face of the armature, and the magnetic pole face parallel to the direction of armature attraction is opposed with a gap to the surface of the armatures parallel to the direction of attraction thereof.