Ernst Vanhöffen (15 November 1858, in Wehlau – 14 June 1918) was a German zoologist. He studied geology, botany and zoology at the universities of Berlin and Königsberg, graduating in 1888 with the thesis Untersuchungen über semaeostome und rhizostome Medusen. In 1889–90 he conducted research of jellyfish at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples.