High-mass star formation has been a very active field over the past decade; however, most studies have targeted regions of luminosities between 10^4^ and 10^5^L_{sun}_. In contrast to that, the highest mass stars reside in clusters exceeding 10^5^ or even 10^6^L_{sun}_. We want to study the physical conditions associated with the formation of the highest mass stars. To do this, we selected the W31 star-forming complex with a total luminosity of ~6x10^6^L_{sun}_ (comprised of at least two subregions) for a multiwavelength spectral line and continuum study covering wavelengths from the near- and midinfrared via (sub)mm wavelength observations to radio data in the cm regime.