From 1925 to 1952, he worked for various chemical companies, until he became director of Wacker Chemie in 1952. A 50% stake of Wacker Chamie was held by the chemical conglomerate IG Farben until 1945, and then by Hoechst AG. After 1945, Balke was one of the few executives of the German chemical industry not stained by Nazi collaboration, which led to his chairmanship of the Association of the Bavarian Chemical Industry. He was honorary professor for chemical processing at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich since 1956.