Jörg van Essen (born 29 September 1947 in Burscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party in the Bundestag.
Van Essen was born in Burscheid and attended a gymnasium in Siegen.
He studied law at the University of Cologne from 1968 to 1973.
After he finished university he became a prosecutor in Münster, Hagen and Dortmund from 1976 to 1985.
Since 1980 van Essen has been a member of the Free Democratic Party and from 1990-2013 van Essen was a member of the Bundestag.
Van Essen is openly gay.