An electromagnetic drive device comprises a drive part (10) arranged to be reciprocated in the stroke direction (H) and possessing a circular or oval cross section, said drive part having a permanent magnet arrangement magnetized athwart the stroke direction (H), such arrangement possessing at least one pair of oppositely magnetized magnet portions (11 through 14) arranged sequentially in the stroke direction and being arranged in the intermediate space of a yoke arrangement (16) with pole pieces (19 through 22) provided in the direction of magnetization on opposite sides of the drive part (10). The yoke arrangement (16) possesses two pairs of pole pieces (19 through 22) delimiting the intermediate space and which are joined together by two yoke regions (23 and 24) extending essentially in parallelism to the stroke direction (H). At least one of the yoke regions (23 and 24) is surrounded by a coil (25 and 26) able to conduct current for performing a stroke. Each pair of pole pieces (19 and 21 and respectively 22 and 22) is provided with a pair of oppositely magnetized magnet portions (11, 12; 32, 33 and, respectively, 13, 14; 34, 35) of the permanent magnet arrangement. This means that it is simple to design for an extremely narrow overall size.